Just a quick vent. Guess I just heard one too many of these today. How many times do I hear, in the course of a month's work, with as many emails and bf questions as I get...(that would number in the 100's)..the familiar scenario. Mother goes into labor. ...panic button is pushed when delivery does not happen before 24 hours, mother is given medications including antibiotics...mother delivers baby by C sec.... baby is sent to NICU for "observation " for several days. Mother goes home, pumping, and seeing baby for a few hours each day. Baby wants nothing to do with the breast ..is sent home bottlefeeding, with a mother who is ejected into the cultural abyss where unskilled people are managing breastfeeding (and I use that term loosely)...people who call themselves breastfeeding experts, or professionals, who call the shots, but who really have a very limited knowledge of complex bf management..and either refuse or are not aware of their own limitations....... The mother horses around with pumping, with nipples shields, and feeding tubes, and what have you, often giving up in frustration after a few weeks of trying to fight against a system where multiple errors multiply and become an insurmountable situation where breastfeeding is doomed to fail? I am sick of this system. I am sick of the screw ups, and the careful warnings, and the lack of belief in the system of birth and breastfeeding and mothering, and the lack of knowledge, and those professionals who have authority and power to help but who never bother to learn about evidence relating to breastfeeding management... and who ultimately contribute to a score of lifelong psychological wounds that these mothers feel as a result of their inability to reach their own bf goal. What is the excuse? I am pissed. Kathleen Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet, Indep. Consultant http://together.net/~kbruce/kbbspin.html LACTNET Archives http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html