Dear all: Rachel's posting about the midwife on a mission or the "pitbull with a smile" capped a unique day. From here in Manhattan --- today is a first since 1999 when I started my training in lactation. I calculated out that I have seen well over 2500 mother infant pairs. In all this time, I have never experienced this. I saw two women on a home visit on the same day that not only had ONLY given breast milk, but also and ONLY fed from the breast. This has NEVER happened before. I attribute this to the childbirth educators and the doulas that assisted these two women. Both had conditions that could easily in other hands, ended up as high intervention births and in Manhattan --- would usually have ended up as surgical deliveries. One woman knew enough from her childbirth education class to seek out the ONLY obstetrician who was willing to try a vaginal delivery. The condition reversed itself just before delivery and she ended up with minimal interventions. The other woman was constantly being pressured to have interventions during delivery and her doula did a marvelous job of helping her visualize which enabled her to avoid the interventions entirely. What a joy to stand back and watch what these women were doing and make minor adjustments to enable them to be more comfortable. One baby does need an evaluation for a tight frenulum --- but mom was able to do a great job of compensating. Would that all woman have such attentive care. This has truly been a joyful day for me. Best regards, Susan Burger *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome