Dear Friends:
I get to see a lot of breastfeeding videos, which is very interesting
and important to our profession. A good video creates emotion and/or teaches,
which are both vital in our work.
After watching some films today as part of preparing for a class, I had
some thoughts to share and questions to pose to you all because I feel
confused, and a little sad.
My questions are about the teaching of colostrum, the word 'bonding' and
the bliss aspect of breastfeeding.
The emphasis on colostrum is a complex topic. On one hand, what ever is
in the breast that day is perfect for the baby, while there are cultures
where the first milk is deemed bad for babies and withheld. So I can understand
the importance of disseminating the information about colostrum to a video
audience, as many videos do.
On the other hand, most of us can drive a car very well without knowing
the names and functions of all the parts under the hood. If we had to learn
about engines before we were licensed to drive, life would be far more
difficult and confusing! Most pregnant women I am working with have about 3 brain
cells left to learn anything because all their mental energy is going into
thoughts about labor. I don't want to take up one of those brain cells with a
term that really isn't important to breastfeeding. She doesn't need to know
about colostrum to breastfeed, she needs to know to keep her baby skin-to-skin,
to respond to the baby's cues for the breast, and where to find someone to
help her with this new relationship.
I have two opposing views concerning teaching of colostrum; my tendency
is not to mention it, unless the mother asks me. Usually, when they ask, it
has been to say, "There isn't really milk at first is there? There is that
colastra something..." which requires clarification and proves my point (at
least to me :-) that most people need to know that the milk in the breast that
day is perfect for the baby, whatever one calls it.
Another aspect of videos is that they often portray breastfeeding as
bliss. Breastfeeding is ocassionally blissful. Mostly, when one is doing it
15-20 times a day with a new baby, it is forgettable and convenient. We don't
have raptures during meals with every bite; there are special meals of course,
where there is bliss but that is more the exception than the rule. Doesn't it
set mothers up for an impossibility to teach that breastfeeding is blissful?
Sometimes mothers in videos are incoherent. They can't describe their
feelings, and either say so, or they become speechless and repeat the same
phrase "It's just a special feeling ". How well does that inspire a woman? What's
the point of showing a mother who can't talk?
And that word 'bonding'....something about it jars me. It isn't a
natural word to me; I guess because it comes from science, and has been so overused
and abused. I would prefer a words like: tenderness, closeness, pleasure,
calmness. I can remember working in labor and delivery and hearing nurses say,
"Okay, you've bonded now. The baby has to go to the nursery" which always
bothered me. As if bonding was some sort of glue or another task, like giving
Vitamin K, that could be started and finished.
What are your thoughts on these subjects?
warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative
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