Laurie wrote:
"What I think might have
happened prior to the new SoP, was that perhaps an LC told a mother
not to
supplement and there was a poor outcome. Perhaps a baby became
dehydrated or
had a very high level of hyperbilirubinemia. This is what I suspect
anyway."
Obviously, I am responding to a conjecture, but:
How many babies are artificially-fed and condemned to a lifetime of
chronic disease, b/c a pediatrician was ignorant or just plain did not
care about breastfeeding? How many babies suffer attachment disorders
b/c they could not bond with mothers who were overwhelmed with a sense
of failure or loss or just an inability to feel connected to their
babies? How many will grow up not able to bond with their own children
and not breastfeed their own babies? How many babies are not breastfed
b/c a pediatrician undermined the relationship between the LC and the
mom, telling the mom the LC did not know what she was talking about. I
have had that done--and not b/c I had a bad relationship with a given
doc, it has happened with docs I did not know at all. Moms are told
such things as-- no one clips tongue-tie anymore--the baby will outgrow
it, chiropractors kill babies (not kidding!!!), herbs are not safe
while breastfeeding (we are talking about galactogogues!!), if the baby
has no thrush in his mouth--neither of you can have it, and so much
more. I actually testified once at a custody hearing where the mom's
breastfeeding of her 8 month old was a contested issue. I was
testifying on behalf of the mom whose pediatrician testified AGAINST
her (yes, he was subpoenaed)!!! He stated that there was no reason to
bf after 4 months. I am totally serious. I was fortunate to have
brought the AAP statement on BF'ing and had highlighted key points
which contradicted him (yes, I contradicted him--court records prove
it!!). The mom won, but how on earth could such a thing happen??
How many mothers will die of reproductive cancers b/c they were
thwarted in their attempts to breastfeed? My mother never considered
breastfeeding b/c she remembered as a very young child being told that
her mother did not breastfeed the 3 younger siblings--including my
mom--after breastfeeding the older ones, b/c a doctor told her that her
milk was "bad" and made her baby sick (funny it wasn't bad with the
older two). (I just realized that only the older two siblings are still
alive). So, as a young mother, this was her memory about infant
feeding--AIM is safer. She died at the age of 62 of ovarian cancer, a
terrible, terrible disease. Who makes these doctors accountable? To say
that mothers need to be advocates for themselves in light of such
irresponsible misinformation is ridiculous--mothers should be able to
get accurate information from peds and their relationships with their
LCs should not be undermined.
I would venture to say that millions of babies have suffered the
consequences of AF b/c of medical "advice" or "orders"--how many do you
think have suffered b/c of LCs? One person even commented in an earlier
post that these HCPs "supervise" our profession!! Pardon me, but by
what authority? Who is supervising them??? Any profession should be
supervised by its own peers. I am blown away that we would even engage
in defending ourselves--to do is to imply that normal feeding needs to
be defended. IMO, those who undermine it deserve to be on the
defensive. I am reminded of the proverb--"those who live in glass
houses should not throw stones".
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC
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