I recently was invited to speak with a group of family practice residents
for a two hour talk on breastfeeding, focusing on issues relevant to their
practice.  They were a very keen bunch, acknowledging no education on the
subject in medical school etc.  When I talked about telephone counselling
and some of the potential legal implications, one of the residents mentioned
that three infants had been admitted to our local children's hospital this
summer with dehydration and the cause was identified as maternal dehydration.

Unfortunately I have absolutely no details to share with you.  Only that
there are no breastfeeding experts at the childrens hospital and I am a
little skeptical.  It has been a hot summer and the mothers may well have
been dehydrated, but I wonder if this was the cause or secondary to the
infant dehydration, I wonder about birth history i.e. excessive blood loss
and breastfeeding management which we know to be a major concern in all of
our hospitals.  I could not find anything in Lawrence or R & A that address
specifically this relationship.  Any comments from the experts would be
appreciated.

Susan Moxley IBCLC
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