I think we all have our bad days and need to ventilate sometimes.  It may be
the formula discharge packs that your hospital is paid to distribute or
supplemental bottles that are not medically indicated.  It could be a
conflict with a colleague or a patient.  We all have our bad days and it is
the time of year where we are sick and we are overloaded with sick patients,
only to come home to a family that is ill at the end of a long day.

We are also entitled to our opinions, within certain guidelines.  We need to
keep our discussions professional in nature and I can appreciate why our
physician colleagues on the list would be irritated by some of the comments
posted recently to lactnet.  Those of you who homebirth, I can also
understand your dismay.

I don't think censoring our opinions and comments is the answer.  We need to
express our opinions in a professional and kind manner, however, and
following the guidelines set forth by our listmothers is a good place to
start.

I'd like to share something of a personal nature that came from our latest
appointment with my children's pediatrician.  My youngest child, Christina,
is 16 months old, still nursing a couple of times a day and has been sick
all month with mono.  It has been a fun month (NOT), me tired and hugging
the commode from morning sickness(yes, I'm pregnant again, due in August)
and caring for a sick toddler who can only be consoled at times at the
breast.  I took her back to see him last week for a checkup and while she
was still dealing with poor weight gain, a runny nose and a cough, he was
amazed at how well she was doing.  He asked if we were still nursing and I
said yes, at times it's all that can console her.  He said of all the sick
infants and toddlers he has seen this winter with mono (I  guess we are
seeing quite a bit in this area), that she was the healthiest child he had
seen and the only one still nursing.  He believed it was not just nursing
but being consoled at the breast that helped her to heal faster (or maybe
not get as sick) than her formula fed peers.  I have to tell you I wish all
of you had physicians like this to work with and to care for your kids.  I
picked him almost 5 years ago because he was new to our area (from
Iowa...need I say more!?) and accepting new patients!  What a find!!!!

As some of you may know, I doula for a few clients each year and some of
them choose to homebirth.  My experience with these families is that they
are the most informed, educated and responsible  families I have ever cared
for.  Their nutritional status is impeccable (maybe I could learn a thing or
two from them ; ) and their whole home is prepared and ready to go by the
time I show up for my first prenatal visit.  This prenatal visit usually
coincides with a visit from their midwife so that we call can meet and talk
about birth plans together.  In my limited experience as a doula at
homebirths, a back up plan for complications is in place and these families
are quite comfortable with the 'risks' they take.    What about the risks
you take in the hospital setting?  Where I work as a labor and delivery
nurse, you are at risk for IV hydration, continuous fetal monitoring, with
internal monitors as soon as we can break your water and epidural anesthesia
with it's attendant risks of increased incidence of operative birth and
cesarean birth.  Oh, did I forget to say we might supplement your breastfed
baby if it's glucose is less than forty, even though our glucometer wasn't
designed for neonates!?  I guess more women are comfortable with these
risks, or perhaps those birthing in the hospital don't know about these
risks.

I have also cared for moms who are transported to the hospital from a
planned homebirth.  I've come on shift and seen these patients treated
terribly by the medical and nursing staff and their midwives turned away,
not allowing them to be at this woman's side.  Is it any wonder why these
women DON'T want to come to the hospital?  Now that my colleagues know I
doula at homebirths, they usually ask me to care for these couples because I
am not going to judge them for homebirthing like some of my colleagues
would.  I keep the midwife at her side if the mother wishes.

I also think of Lisa, our resident midwife who practiced in Polynesia
attending births with no shoes on!   I wonder what Lisa's thoughts on
hospital versus homebirth are?

If you need to vent, then vent.  We all have our good and bad days.  Read
what you are sending, maybe two or three times.  Are you going to REALLY
tick someone off by what you are writing?  Are you simply stating fact or
opinion?  Anyway, let's be professional and kind to one another.  No one
says we have to agree on everything but we need to play nice.

Sincerely,

Maurenne Griese, RNC, BSN, CCE, CBE
Manhattan, KS  USA
[log in to unmask]
http://www.networksplus.net/griese

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