Interesting this should come up. Recently I had a mother who was told, 
she didn't have to feed both sides by a lactation
specialist at another clinic.
Her baby became failure to thrive and thus she came to see me. I called 
her doctor to work a plan of care since the doctor and I
did not have the same recommendations. The doctor told me that this 
exact scenerio had happened a few times in the last month and all the 
mothers had come from
the same clinic.

It appears that the problem was not that the advice was incorrect per 
se
but that the mother heard "only feed one side". I agree we should not 
have "rules" but there does need to be
guidelines and mothers of newborns should generally be told to offer 
both sides at each feeding. I would further recommend that
the mother be reassured its ok to feed
just one side if and only if the issue is brought up by the mom and you 
know she has a generous supply with a thriving infant.
If you give any other advice then you should clarify that you are 
changing the usual guidelines specifically for this mom and
baby for the following reasons...

I would assert that at this stage of breastfeeding, the risks of being 
offered not enough milk are higher than
the risks of too much milk.

Christine M. Betzold NP CLC MSN

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