Wow, Barbara! thanks for these much-needed words of wisdom. I have long felt that if we are to be truly successful in changing culture, we must begin by meeting parents where they are, and helping them to meet their own goals -- rather than foisting our own goals upon them. Martha Johnson RN IBCLC Eugene OR -----Original Message----- From: Barbara Wilson-Clay [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 7:04 AM Subject: bottles-long I see a fair number of babies each year for all sorts of reasons, and have been counseling working women for over 20 years. The vast majority of these women have had babies who, for one reason or another, have had bottles. Once the babies are breastfeeding functionally, most adjust and can feed both ways. The dogma that suggests that "even one bottle" will compromise bfg is inaccurate in my experience. Further, it runs so counter to what so many mothers experience and can plainly see for themselves that the statement compromises our professional integrity. NORMAL babies can make the switch easily. There are many factors that throw newborns into the NOT NORMAL category (ususally temporarily). If a baby is weak, ill, premature, injured, has poor oro-facial tone, oral anomalies, etc. then the work of breastfeeding is increased and normal feeding ability is impacted. The bottle looks attractive to these weakly feeding babies because it eases their hunger. Once they are well, bigger, stronger, adjusted, improved, etc. they can breastfeed normally. So long as the mother has protected her milk supply so that it competes effectively with the bottle's flow rate, babies are pretty easy to transition back to breast. (Sometimes the intermediate step involves using the right size nipple shield). These older babies whose moms go back to work who then begin to have problems with the breast may also be sliding over into a NOT NORMAL category. Their issues may relate to nursing strike behavior in protest of the separation. They may be reacting negatively to down-regulation of the milk supply due to inadequate stimulation, fatigue and stress. Mom may be so harried that her let-down is slow and baby begins biting and tugging to super-stimulate the nerve to bring the milk down (as calves do when they butt and tug). But I have many years of seeing mothers happily combine breast and bottle feeding. Since all over the planet so many mothers must, or feel they must, or want to return to their careers, our job as LCs is to advocate for the right of the baby to continue to breastfeed. I see some of the anti-bottle propaganda in the US as a not-so-subtle effort to control behavior in favor of attachment parenting. (This is not a criticism of AP, which I practiced myself when my kids were young. It is to say that my job as an LC is not to promote my agenda, but to help the mother achieve HER goals while trying to gently educate her about the needs of the baby.) If we fail to understand what are the mechanisms of breast refusal, and misinterpret them to mothers, we risk planting powerful suggestions that work against mothers continuation of nursing. There are already so many barriers, why add more? I tell everyone that of course they can combine breast and bottle successfully if that is what they have decided to do. Then my job is to make that happen if I can. What do you get if you fail? The exact same outcome you would have gotten otherwise: mother weans so she can use the bottle. What do you get if you succeed? Many more months of human milk feeds for the baby and many more months of the kind of intimacy that protects the bond of women and children who must experience routine separation. I've never crunched these particular outcomes, but there are few working women in my practice who wean prior to 12 months, including mothers of twins. Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates LactNews Press www.lactnews.com *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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