I have enjoyed reading the conversation about combining babies with
professional acivities.  I am going tomorrow to the nursing home to round,
and will have baby Caroline with me in the sling.  Hopefully, my older
patients will enjoy her, and I get a day off of pumping!  (I've only been
back to work 2 days and already feel like I need a day off.)
I'm also attending a family centered maternity care conference next week and
will most likely bring her with to that also.  She's still small and sleeps
a fair amount so I think I can pull it off.  The AAFP discourages bringing
children to meetings, but only bans them from conference sessions that
require a separate cost.  Hopefully, I won't get too many angry glares.  My
third child attended class with me full time for 8 weeks (from 2 weeks of
age to 10 weeks) and we did quite well, so hopefully I can manage for just
few days.  If not, I'm more willing to give up attending some sessions than
I am to leave her when I don't have to!  When ds #3 was 11 days old, I
started a full-time fellowship in medical ethics.  The summer session
involved 5 days a week of seminar style classes, which meant sitting around
a conference table with 12 other students.  One older physician who was
retiring from surgery and starting a career in medical ethics finally took
me aside and asked did I ever feed this baby.  He was obviously confused by
the lack of bottles.  I didn't quite know how to tell him I had been sitting
right next to him feeding this baby nearly continuously!
I really wish I could bring her to all of my OB patient visits.
Breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding is just not that common
around here and perhaps seeing a happy nursing baby would help some of my
patients that are on the fence about feeding method.
Since I don't bring her to work with me every day, I'm settling for talking
about nursing her and how much we both enjoy it, all the time.  I have a
great picture of her at the breast gazing up at me intently that my 8 year
old daughter took when Caroline was just 3 weeks old.  I'm thinking of
hanging it in my OB exam room and hoping it provokes conversation . . .
Jennifer Tieman
Family physician
Mom to 4, including nursling Caroline Rose born 5/31/03

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