This was a situation where both mom and dad have HIV and babe was born by cesarean. Dad wanted mom to BrFd because he had read a study indicating that pumped milk, if left to stand for 4 hours, would be safe to feed to baby: no more HIV. The study exists. The action studied was lipolysis. But there was another, better study, that clearly showed that lipolysis does NOT kill HIV, no nix on the "4-hour rule"..

Anyway, when I got to work the next day, the Pedi told me that I did not need to see the mother. She clearly understood that she cannot breastfeed. Okay. So maybe my mention of how SOME other people do it in SOME other countries i.e. pasteurization, I got the "we're not going THERE" response. Fine. I wasn't suggesting they should. But apparently that was enough that they didn't want me to talk to the mother.

Later that day, aside, I talked to the Pedi and told him about the study that the dad probably read, and of the second study refuting the theory of lipolisys (sp?). In my opinion, the dad was a very strong influence over mom and it might have been useful for someone to tell the dad about the second study, so he would back off his pressure on mom. (Preferably, I would have the Pedi tell dad of the study.) The Pedi got that "we're not going there" look and repeated that the mother clearly understands she cannot breastfeed. 

End of discussion. 

Please know that I always agreed with the Pedi that mom should not breastfeed. My issue is with how it was presented to mother. Do "absolute rules" always have to preclude "meeting the parents where they are" and providing good information on WHY mom should not BF? Especially since this dad was already researching the issue, however incompletely. The Pedi did say he was not going to assume legal liability for saying anything other than "NO!".

Thoughts? even though this is now a dead issue between me and this Pedi.

Phyllis

--
Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
Glendale, AZ.
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