Dr. Mimi,
This is a beautifully written post. Thank you.
To all the women who are feeling worn out and time for a change,
Please know that I have spoken to most of you in person and read many, many,
many of your posts on LACTNET. Even if you don't remember speaking to me at
an ILCA conference, I remember meeting you and your words of wisdom.
After several years of preparation, I took and passed the exam this summer.
I have three young children (the youngest, 10mo, is nursing and hopefully
will be for years to come) and I am (to my knowledge) the only IBCLC in my city
who does home visits. I am also one of a handful of doulas who still take
clients. AND my youngest was born at home with a midwife who just had HER
second child at home last week. We are out here!! We are learning from your
experience and are traveling a path that isn't as difficult because of all the
groundwork you have done and are doing. THANK YOU!!
Keep up the good fight.
Christie Pillado, IBCLC, RLC
El Paso, Texas
I come from feisty stock. My 79 year old mom still substitute teaches in
the Chicago Public Schools. My 80 year old dad is having his memoirs of
covering the Civil Rights and Black Nationalists movements published next year by
the University of Michigan Press. Both continue to be life long activists
struggling for the racial equality. Have they gotten weary at times, yes. Do
they get angry, yes. But have they retired, OH NO!
I'd have to contend with two cantankerous elders if I even breathe the
thought of leaving my profession. Take a sabbatical yes, a vacation okay. I
would be hearing the voices of my grandparents and great aunts and uncles yelling
from their grave, "Girl, you better get off your high horse and get goin" I
am descended from a feisty bunch that tends to work well into their eighties
and only slow down in their late nineties. Folks that didn't have the
opportunity to attend high school or college until my parent's generation. That
and being the first physician in my family, one of a very few black women
physicians in the US. If I spent all my energy focusing on the disrespect of
colleagues, the discrimination I have faced, I wouldn't be able to get up in the
morning. However I know despite my struggles, I have been priveleged to
help so many who didn't have a voice, who needed that special reassurance, who
needed someone to stand up and draw the first line in the sand.
The work we do matters. I am certain every person on this list has touched
countless lives in ways they cannot even imagine. For every visible defeat,
I am sure all of us have had many small victories. I find solace knowing
that I do make a difference. I am grateful that I had the opportunity, the
choices to work at a time that so many of my sisters have not.
I do this work not just for those today, but also for those coming behind me.
Lactation work just like every other aspect of US health care is in turmoil.
There are a whole lot of unhappy campers out there. But giving up and
walking away doesn't solve the problem, doesn't satisfy my desire to affect
change.
So please find that place for renewal and recharge. Pass that valuable
knowledge to another person interested in doing the work.
Take care of yourselves, you are needed.
Best,
Pierrette Mimi Poinsett MD
Petaluma CA
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