I'd better get my disclaimer in, up front, before someone thinks that this
is *my* opinion.  I'm just trying to reflect on why many HCPs in the US are
so eager to find reasons for a woman to *not* breastfeed.

You should probably not breastfeed:
         after cancer.
         when taking Diflucan or...
         if you are poor.
         if you exercise vigorously.
         if you have twins.
         if you are over 40.
         if your are under 20.
         through newborn jaundice.
         if there has been smoke in the house.
         if you get a perm.
         if you ate tainted food.
         if you have been bitten by a spider.
         if you are going to have an X-ray.
         if your baby is tiny.  Or large.

Why take Diflucan at all, with its risks to the liver? Or its high cost?

Why do a frenotomy to enable baby to breastfeed?

Breastfeeding is RISKY and unnecessary, and should not be considered safe
under *any* circumstance that adds *further* risk to mother and baby. Women
who are "choosing" to breastfeed are outside the norm and they and their
babies must be monitored closely. The risk/benefit ratio is skewed
*against* breastfeeding in most circumstances. Acceptance is tenuous and
dependent on no unexpected challenges.

We on Lactnet are always asking, "WHY...?" I think that the deep-seated
feeling that breastfeeding comes with unknowns and unmeasurables, and is
unstudied, and variable just throws most HCPs into a spin. It just doesn't
fit the medical model that they spent years internalizing. It may fit the
Health model, but not the Medical model.

Most HCPs feel much safer with what they know, and that, unfortunately, is
artificial feeding. They will not be convinced of the extensive advantages
of breastfeeding because they don't *want* it to be so. Research into the
"risks" of breastfeeding will continue to make the journals and these HCPs
will lunge eagerly at every study. And any "proof" that breastfeeding is
superior will quickly be refuted by the next study.

So long as we see breastfeeding as a medical "problem" medical schools will
have to be the beginning of change in the view of breastfeeding as risky.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, where I did a hospital visit today to work with
a newborn, reminding me why I am glad that I don't work there. I'm always
amazed!

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