Hi Kathy,
Thanks for explaining more about what you meant.
My experience has been such that I have given up trying to guess just who is
going to go ahead with relactation/induced lactation and do what they need
to do in their situation (becuase just how hard it is varies enormously!)
because I have been surprised too many times....Mums who I thought were
absolutely committed and would be sure to put everything they could into it
ended up not even starting and mothers who I thought I would never heard
from again after talking to them have surprised me by contacting me months
later with their child breastfeeding beautifully. I just give every mum who
contacts me information on what her options might be and then it's up to
her. I don't tell her that it's going to be hard because I don't know just
what she's going to do and it's not up to me to judge how hard something
might be for her. I've heard from too many mums who have found it very
difficult to get support from LCs and lay counsellors, they say things like
"if she didn't think I could do it, then who did I think I was kidding."
It's not that often that LCs or lay counsellors tell women that they won't
be able to do it (that most often comes from Drs) but women pick up on the
underlying message in what they are told. That's why it's so important IMO
for women to find support from their LC or lay counsellor.  I'm happy to
provide support but I don't chase them. I also refer every single woman who
contacts me to support networks, heavily encouraging them to join Internet
based and face to face support groups. Support is really important,
indespensible really and the existence of Internet based groups makes
specific support for relactation/induced lactation accessible to pretty much
everybody.
If the baby does not want to suckle that makes things difficult, without a
doubt! Some women persist non-the-less.
Karleen Gribble
Australia


> Relactation takes commitment and self discipline in my opinion. One has to
> keep working at it for several weeks before one sees the beginning of
> success. I work with a lot of moms who want to relactate but almost no one
> is successful  -- most give up quickly or can't get baby to latch on. Not
> allowing baby to cry is a big cultural thing here and mothers feel their
> baby chooses to bottle feed! This is a low income population who get most
of
> their formula for free, and who get the IBCLC help free, and the loan of
an
> Elite pump free, SNS, etc.
>
> Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC
>

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