Hi, Karyn-grace, and thanks for taking up the points I made in my post.
You're right that discussing a national issue in an international
forum has drawbacks, and I explained why 'One IBCLC for every mother'
could not work in the UK.
I also wasn't aware that peer support was not used much in Canada.
>
Karyn-grace, you said of the peer support that is on offer:
> those groups come no where near to what LLL
>groups offer.
The peer support I am familiar with is different from LLL groups, and
reaches a different client group. I don't know exactly how many LLL
groups there are in the UK, but a look at their website shows about
80. There are literally hundreds and now possibly thousands of peer
supporters in the UK, and several hundred groups - one of my beefs
is that there is no central resource where they are all listed, and
they do tend to come and go. In my city (pop 250,000) there are four
groups and maybe 30 or 40 active peer supporters.
Peer support in the UK is lively, active, growing.
>
>I mean no disrespect to anyone here when I say that I find it laughable to
>have a discussion about how we need more peer support and how that is the
>key to increasing breastfeeding rates to six months.
Why is that laughable? The research on peer support certainly shows
that it does increase breastfeeding rates to 6 mths, and this is
research from a wide, international base.
> It is not possible!
>Last time I checked, peer support services were run by VOLUNTEERS, and their
>numbers are dwindling!
Yes, they are volunteers, but by no means always - I have trained a
bunch of them in Birmingham (where in one small part of it they have
30 paid peer supporters) and there are plenty of other models
elsewhere in the world where peer supporters are paid. The model in
Canada where they are always volnteers and dwindling in numbers is
not copied elsewhere.
>
>Instead, we use role models who we feel are worthy of our adoration. I
>believe we live in culture of IDOLATRY, not of true, every day role models.
>Those we idolize become our role models. We can idolize our mothers, our
>sisters, our doctors, Britney Spears, Madonna, Dr. Jack Newman, or the seven
>founders of La Leche League. But idolize them we do, and mimic them we
>will.
>
>I'm not saying that peer support as an intimate source of role modelling is
>valid and doesn't happen every day. It does! But, it is not enough. If it
>were, everyone baby would be breastfed exclusively to 6 months at this
>point.
???? But not if there are no peer supporters!
I say , look at the research. What does it tell us about influences?
It does not tell us that women breastfeed because Madonna did so, or
don't breastfeed because some other celebrity didn't. The facts are
that women are most likely to breastfeed if their mothers did so, if
their friends did so, and if they themselves breastfed their own
first baby. There are many, many papers showing the influence that
is powerful is close to home, is in real life, and is unrelated to
what far-away celebs do.
>
>We must also realize that role modeling works both ways...and for every
>woman that models exclusively breastfeeding, there is another two or three
>who are modelling bottle feeding or supplementing, or what not.
Precisely :)
>
>I am sorry. I simply do not believe that peer support for breastfeeding
>success for ALL babies is enough.
I have not said that it is enough - but I think in many settings
(not speaking for the whole world!) developing effective peer
support is more realistic than giving everyone an IBCLC - given that
most women simply will not need specialist lactation support, if she
has a breastfeeding culture to nurture her.
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
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