>
> Here's a very typical example: A mother states she wants to breastfeed.
She
> is supported and encouraged by the LC. She has successful feeds. At night
> she has the nsy feed the baby formula. The next day the LC comes back and
> they start again, but the mother says "not right now I am going to take a
> shower (baby is actively rooting)" or "I'll try later." Sometimes she says
> this the very first day and doesn't do more than 1 or 2 feeds in a 24 hr
> day. I don't get it, but it could be modesty or any number of things. Most
> of us are too busy to really actively listen and figure it out. Maybe we
> never would figure it out.
>

As I read this I can't help wondering about the influence of the hospital
routines on this mother's feelings. Why is the baby in the nursery at night?
Mother and baby need to be together. Why did the baby get formula at night?
Was it truly the mother's idea, or was it - and I have OFTEN heard this -
the nurse strongly suggesting that she needs to rest, she shouldn't be a
martyr, she doesn't have much milk now anyway, the babies do better if they
get some formula at night, etc. Or even if the mother did suggest it, was it
happily accepted as a good idea, or was she told about some of the risks of
giving even one bottle?

I think that overnight separation has many effects. The mother often gets
the suggestion that her milk isn't necessary, isn't "enough," that formula
is just as good, and her baby doesn't need her. I think that when a newborn
baby doesn't nurse for 8 hours, the mother's body begins to go into
mourning. She feels more detached from her baby. Add this to labour
medications such as epidurals (which I believe also create a sense of
detachment from the baby, based only on my own observations) and she may
lose interest in breastfeeding. She wants to breastfeed intellectually but
emotionally has become uncomfortable with the idea of being close to the
baby.

We need to keep mothers and babies together all the time, from birth on. We
need to treat formula feeding as an emergency alternative, not a routine.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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