More frightening to me are the HCP's (in maternity wards, delivery wards, Well-Baby clinics, Kupat Cholim - various health funds of which today there are many, drs. practices- ) who are somehow connected to our Ministry of Health, into whose hands fall the majority of women giving birth who have chosen to breastfeed their babies. They have not actively seeked out LC's, Cle's, CLL's FSIP's, IBCLC's, LLLL's, (sorry if these aren't accurate, I cannot remember them all) for advice, but they are offered unsolicited remarks, chastising, inaccurate information from supposedly recognized authorities (or why on earth would they be working in those departments??) AGAIN, I SPECIFICALLY DID NOT MENTION A PROFESSION, AND IN NO WAY MEAN TO DISCREDIT THOSE PROFESSIONALS, HCPS WHO DO SUCH WONDERFUL WORK!. It is on the border of medical negligence IMHO to employ a "baby" nurse in a baby clinic who has not had 1 hour's instruction on the basics. They represent themselves as knowledgeable (at best) and as lactation consultants (at worst!!). Every day I think about ways in which to educate the public of this misrepresentation and even dangerous practice, but I keep reminding myself of my limitations and where I want to expend my energy. When a mom actively seeks assistance and reaches one of us with all those various letters, I can just trust that we - each in our own capacity - 1) wish to help the mom
2) promote bf on the theoretical and practical levels 3) have knowledge ranging from minimal to more than minimal, 4) have more knowledge than those mentioned above who have no knowledge nor experience
5) know where our limitations lie and have the sense to refer or share difficult and more complex cases.
I, also, do not like wasting precious time inventing the wheel. Have any of you seen or written any publicity regarding the above mentioned issue. ? Either in med. journals, parenting mags, or newspapers?
Thanks for listening.
Ellen Shein, Tel Aviv
It was either Jan or Linda and many more, who said the letters don't really matter - I think there are
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