When my son Chance was born 5 years ago at 32 weeks in a govt. hospital an
Hong Kong, it was made very clear that I was not welcome in the NICU and
Breastfeeding there was out of the question. ( I did it ant way, and they
put screens around me so nobody could "see" what I was doing)  Since it was
baby #5 and I had been a LLLL for 12 years, I had lots of confidence.  I
made a big show out of scrubbing and gowning and told them that I was as
"clean" as any of the hospital personell and that if they could touch my
baby, so could I.  They complied.  It may have been that they figured I
wasn't going away, or the fact that they were flabbergasted, or that I was
so much bigger than *all* of them (I'm 5'8").   I think that speaking with
confidence is that you know what you're doing is really important.
Unfortunately, when you are the mom of a NICU baby, confidence is often the
last thing you have.  (Can you believe that I was the ONLY breastfeeding
mother in the whole hospital!  I hope that the BF rates in Hong Kong are
better now (they were 5% in 1990.    Nancy Sherwood in Perth, West Australia
where the temperature today was 41.1 Celsius (that's 106 F)!