Content-Transfer-Encoding: |
7bit |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Sun, 26 Dec 2004 21:19:57 EST |
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" |
MIME-Version: |
1.0 |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Nikki writes: "On one hand, I am being paid to help breastfeeding
mothers. On the other hand, the hospital and its staff are overwhelmingly
disruptive
and disrespectful of breastfeeding."
Nikki you have absolutely captured the essence of working as a hospital based
LC. I believe they hire us as a type of window dressing--it's good PR for
the hospital--it is not about any deep seated respect or belief in the
superiority of breastfeeding or the risk of not doing so. The staff like us as long
as nothing is required of them. The only way I can see this changing is if
the nursing management holds staff accountable for timely, accurate
breastfeeding support and information and also holds them accountable for poor support
of breastfeeding. This is not about giving more classes to the staff. They
certainly need to be educated but they also need to be REQUIRED to employ the
knowledge and skills it takes to get mothers off to the best start possible.
They must not be allowed to jeopardize breastfeeding, any more than they
would be allowed to jeopardize the health of a pt. with diabetes or cancer.
Nurses who don't want to work with breastfeeding should choose a specialty other
than maternal-child. Just as nurses are taught to start IV's, monitor vital
signs, take care of wounds, give any number of treatments (they have no choice
in the matter, they do it or they don't work) they need to be taught to
assess and provide the proper assistance with breastfeeding. This should be the
biggest part of their job on a maternity unit--not just some incidental chore
when and if they feel like it. And pediatricians and OB's can do much to
change the culture in hospitals as well. If they talk to their pts before they
give birth and write orders which are consistent with support of breastfeeding
much of the jeopardization (is that a word?) of breastfeeding going on in
hospitals would stop. Formula companies have a huge influence but we could
override this if all HCP's truly believed that babies need to breastfeed and
developed the skills to help mothers make this happen. So--off my soap box for
today, but Nikki I feel your pain.
Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
|
|