I have been watching the posts related to childbirth with interest as my four were born in a time of "fight for your rights" . I feel that we lactation consultants often are handed a mess created or contributed to by today's typical birth. I feel my role as a lactation consultant is to address the breastfeeding problem and I tend to listen to the birth story while biting my tongue due to my referral from the ob dr. I hope by getting the parents on to a good breastfeeding experience and into a local LLL group there may be hope for future babies. I have concerns over the use of pitocin to speed labors and the impact on the breastfeeding infant. Just a few years ago it was considered "average" for a primip to deliver in 24 hours. When I do a labor hx today it is seems the average labor is around 6 hours. Are levels of pitocin used today different? It seems if I had to run a course ( to use the sports analogy) in 1/4 the time, I would be much more physically stressed. I think this contributes to the uncoordinated suck and lethargic behavior as much as pain relief meds. Who gets an epidural without pitocin?? In our area inductions are as common as sunshine. When my assistant's dr. suggested an induction for her intended VBAC because Candy whined about being uncomfortable, I finally opened my mouth. Candy waited two more weeks, had her VBAC with a 8+ lb'er. My daughter is 9- I pray the trend will swing back the other way before then. Debby Kearney, IBCLC in sunny warm FL PS Hi to everyone from the GLOPAR conference!!