I agree 100% with Kathleen A. that "motivation" says it all.
Sometimes, "blame" is put on the mom and not the baby. I had a
young mom call me on the phone to say that she wanted to get the
baby on the breast if possible, since she was using a silicon
artificial nipple and wasn't happy. When I asked her how she got
started on the artificial nipple, she blurted that she "didn't
have nipples". Well, THAT startled me, as you can imagine. I was
trying to picture how this silicon nipple could help this poor,
poor woman with this congenital abnormality of being born with
no nipples. Somewhat indelicately, I asked "Do you mean you were
born with no nipples?" No,no,no, she answered. She has nipples.
She was told "by the hospital nurses" to use the art. nipple
"because she has no nipples". When I saw this woman (and her
nipples), I told her straight out that there was nothing
whatsoever wrong with her nipples and I had no idea why the
nurses drove her nuts. When I talked with her later, there was
no problem, the baby went to the breast. Now, if this mom had
been less motivated, she would have given up before coming to me,
after being led to believe that she was somehow deformed and that
bfing would be difficult and achieved only with devices. Judy
Knopf