Tamara,

I feel your pain!

For example, I have had several well-meaning peer counselors tell mothers of
premies to not express but just feed the baby at breast, when the baby was
not transferring milk. That is dangerous advice under those circumstances.

Yes, the overmedicalized hospital environment is a totally different world
from a bf-friendly culture or midwifery model. I see pretty much the same as
you are seeing, and forced mother/baby separation too. Sometimes the
hospital is a tertiary care center and ALOT of the moms are already high
risk with multiple medical problems. However, some of the poor bf behavior
and poor milk production could be mitigated by baby friendly practices which
include STS, true rooming in, and highly trained and supportive staff.
While I have found my efforts have made differences to INDIVIDUAL mothers
and some select hospital staff, I have NOT found that my work of over 20 yrs
directly in the bf field (30 yrs as a nurse) has made a difference in
changing a hospital culture nor the culture of the region. I think things
will get better with bf only after change has occurred in the practices
surrounding pregnancy care and childbirth.

Laurie Wheeler RN MN IBCLC
Mississippi USA

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