I've posted before how generally I don't touch - in fact I touch arms and
shoulders and what have you, just naturally and apropriately, but not
breasts. That's the way it usually is with lay helpers here - not HPs,
that's a different relationshipo, esp. in the UK with midwives and health
visitors.

I am pretty laid back about bodies and stuff (!) and okay about my own,
too, I think, but I can't assume another mother would feel the same about
her body and breasts, esp with a lay helper...so I don't run the risk of
breaching any ettiquette.  I don't think it's the same as pulse taking - I
show a mother what to do by using a doll or a teddy or a cushion, and
shadow her hands, and make gentle verbal suggestions. I may gently point to
her baby or her breasts to underline something - but I honestly never miss
not touching....it's just the way I've got used to helping. Often, mothers
in the UK have had their breasts (and their babies) jiggled and mauled and
so on for days in hospital, and maybe afterwards, too - I really don't want
to add to the invasion!

There are no hard and fast rules about touching - we probably all do what
we sense is comfortable and right for us, and our roles, and for our
mothers, and our culture and what we know, or think we know,  about what
has gone on before.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK