I was amazed to find myself face-to-face this week with a mother who
described just the sort of  smooshing the baby onto the breast in
order
to force it to nurse i've been seeing discussed here.  She described

that an LC working with her with her first baby did the "cram-jam"
technique
to get her newborn daughter to nurse..that it never worked inspite of
her own
persistent efforts, always had sore nipples, but "had to give bottles
so the baby wouldn't starve"
and finally gave up after a couple weeks.  Interestingly enough, I
was working with her and 36 hour old son
who would latch, slip off after 3-4 sucks and fuss , was making her
nipples somewhat
tender, had lost 7% from birth...and looked like he might have
ankyloglossia to me.
Oddly enough, the newborn nurses thought he was "nursing well" and
the mother was worried about his
obviously concerned about his dissatisfaction with feeding and was
ready to give
supplement but petrified about the prospect of giving bottles.  She
was very relieved to be able
to offer supplemental formula by cup and was going to keep trying but
see a community based
colleague if not better in another day or two.  Makes me wonder if
maybe the first
baby had a combination of ankyloglossia and nipple confusion.  Thanks
for letting me
ventilate my frustration with those who don't treat babies like
people...and give 'em a little
respect!!! (My background in neonatal nursing goes back to those
ancient times, only a few
years back when we pretended babies couldn't feel pain.)  And now, if
someone will
bring me a ladder, Ill get off MY soapbox!--Phyl