Jennifer Tow wrote in her post:
'I have a friend who says "assisted birth means assisted bf".'

I'd hesitate to write off assisted births that quickly.
How about 'assisted birth means increased need for empowerment strategies to
support BF' ?

Sometimes intervention in labor is not avoidable.  I really believe it is
even more imperative to use BFs healing potential in cases where there has
been intervention because the woman's trust in herself has already taken
such a beating.  BF can be her way to wellness and strength.  Just one
person near her, expressing trust in her ability to make milk and give it
from her breasts to her baby can be the one straw she holds on to, to get
through that awful time of reckoning after a disappointing and traumatic
labor. Sometimes the satisfaction of BF can be the step to a safe place from
which she can truly take in the disappointment, and MAYBE avoid it with a
subsequent baby.

While sparing the list all the details I will go so far as to disclose that
this is something I am equally convinced of as a midwife and as a mother!

always the optimist, with a persistent trust in women's bodies
Rachel Myr
Norway

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