Ooops! I think I forgot to sign my name to the previous messsage! Sorry!

Working with teen mothers at WIC clinics (with Lesley Robinson) we were
pleased to see so many pregnant teens who were accompanied by their mothers.
It was very sad, however, to hear these mothers lament about how they,
themselves, had failed at breastfeeding. This "failure" was often related to
sore nipples resulting from poor positioning.

One of the most important things we did at the clinics was to reassure
everybody that it is not possible to "fail." You either breastfeed or you
don't. Even if you only breastfeed once, you have still given your baby the
inestimable gift of your own milk, something that nobody else could have
done.

Another thing that helped was being told that there has been a virtual
explosion on breastfeeding research in the past ten years. I shared how I
also had cracked and bleeding nipples for the first three weeks with each of
my first two babies because we just didn't know as much as we do today.  I
have a photo of me nursing Dan which clearly shows him facing the sky
instead of me. Thank you, Chele Marmet, for all your work on positioning!
Knowing that their daughters could come to us for help, these moms became
very supportive of their daughter's breastfeeding.
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Norma Ritter, IBCLC, LLLL
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Date: 10/11/95
Time: 10:27:25
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