Oh Wise Ones:
Please help me find a positive way to deal with the lactation "support" women
are receiving at one of our local hospitals. In the last week I have heard
three unbelievable accounts of purely idiotic information given out to women.
The lactation nurses are telling moms of newborns to nurse their babies every
3-5 hours, ten minutes on each side no more no less. These moms are being told
that if a baby is allowed to nurse more frequently that they will not being
getting enough hind milk! So they should not "let the baby use them as a
pacifier!" :O Binkies are fine AND if baby seems hungry after nursing that
bottles are fine! What is going on? Now, the clincher. A mom called my
coleader because her 4 day old 7lb 12oz baby lost 10% of his birth weight. The
baby was wetting 6-8 disposables and pooping twice a day. Her MD said she must
supplement. He didn't stop there. He prepared a bottle  and said he could not
allow "this starvation to go on" and pressured this woman into giving the baby
a bottle of ABM!!!!  I realize that alot of peds don't know alot about
breastfeeding but this..... I really am dumbfounded. I have always been so
proud of our other hospital with it's wonderful initiation rates. (~95%) How
can there be such a disparity in two facilities so close geographically? Am I
just waking up to what the rest of the world is up against in terms of
breastfeeding advocacy?
How does one infiltrate an enemy camp such as this?
Jack, would you like to move to Boulder?
Snarling and Growling,
Tracy Kirschner