I just had to join in on this conversation. Math was my first passion...not
lactation. Unfortunately, I had a math teacher in junior high school and
again in high school, who told me I had no business outscoring the boys in
the class. He had seen my IQ scores and I wasn't "that smart". When I was
denied access to appropriate math classes in college, I changed my major to
languages with the goal of becoming an intercontinental stewardess (no longer
a politically correct term). I was too short. I became a nursing assistant in
a nursing home to find out if I could handle being a nurse. I worked in that
position for 5 years before returning to school to get my RN. Fast forward 15
years. I had become an IBCLC with the job title of Lactation Specialist after
RN on my badge. I had floated to a med/surg. unit at the hospital with a 1
to 2 assignment. The wife of one of my patients took one look at my badge and
refused to leave her husband in my care. She was diabetic and had taken her
meds but now refused to go to get something to eat. So, I essentially had
three people that I had to worry about. She assumed that because I am a
Lactation Specialist, I don't know how to take care of any other than
babies...breastfeeding ones at that. She didn't have any clue what my
experience was...She didn't know that I had more experience caring for
people in her husband's condition than I had caring for other peoples'
babies. In fact the first baby that I had fed a bottle to was a lion cub. But
that is another story.
Too often I have seen people judged by their appearance, title or by someone
else's assessment. A lovely, young married woman with every hair in place
didn't have a clue how to pick up her baby, let alone how to breastfeed it.
Two rooms down was another young mom with below normal IQ who tenderly
cuddled her baby, made eye contact, spoke quietly to it and gently brought it
to her breast to feed. Recently, a doctor was offended when I mentioned that
we learned in nursing school that to SOME people, MD stood for minor deity.
I try to teach my children and live by the practice of treating all people
with respect and honor. We are each unique, valuable and wondrously created.
If we were all the same, it would be a very dull world indeed.
Kathy Bowers, RN, IBCLC and proud mother of 5 sons---a professional
cheerleader, an engineer/cartoonist, a sports marketing major at Univ. of
Oregon, one who is still struggling to find his niche, and a 13 year old who
will be entering the 9th grade.
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