>>Dear Friends:
>>     How many of us have heard a mother say to us,  "Some one at the hospital
>>looked and told me my latch was perfect" while  she is ready to quit
>>breastfeeding because of the pain?
>
>This is probably one of my "pet peeves!" Sometimes I get very 
>frustrated because the mother doesn't want to even discuss adjusting 
>or improving the latch - she already knows the latch couldn't be the 
>problem because the nurse told her the latch was fine.
>
>Teresa Pitman



Aaaaaaagh! This happens *all the time* here as well.

This is what has happened: over the past 10 years or so, more and 
more midwives and health visitors (the hcps most closely involved 
with mothers and babies here - they don't usually see hospital 
nurses) hve picked up the fact that positioning and attachment are 
important when it comes to breastfeeding.

But no one has told them that what the mother *feels* is far more 
important than what it actually looks like....it really doesn't 
matter one scrap if the way it looks could step straight into a text 
book. If the mother says it hurts, then something needs to change.

In fact, when mothers are asked about this, they usually report that 
no one has looked at how the baby takes the breast (which is crucial 
to me when I am observing someone with problems - but then again, I 
do know what I am looking for and I do take a mother's reported pain 
seriously), and they haven't been asked about what the nipple looks 
like when  the baby comes off the breast, either. All they  have 
looked at is the baby at the breast.

Mothers can get a bit defensive  when several people have told them 
the attachment is fine.

I just have to tell them that in my experience, when a mother tells 
me it hurts, there is almost always a way to make it hurt a  lot less.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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