Just rambling...I hosted a radio show yesterday in celebration of World
Breastfeeding Month and invited a panel of women from different disciplines
who all belonged to the local breastfeeding coalition.  I was the only
IBCLC, as well as the moderator, and the engineer--not really the ideal
set-up but it worked OK.  You do what you can to get the word out there.
Anyway, one of the women, as it turned out, was not the best person to have
invited--she was very tense and anxious before we went on air, and started
trying to tell the panel what they could and could not say.  Then during the
show, she blurted out, "Of course, we don't want anyone breastfeeding who
uses alcohol or drugs."  Time for damage control!  I responded, "Well, of
course it depends on how much alcohol, and which drugs."  Which would have
been a natural lead into timing of medications, AAP approval of certain
medications, etc., but she shot off into "Well, around HERE drugs means
METH, and you can't have those mothers breastfeeding!"  To which my response
was that I had some serious concerns about sending newborns home with women
on methamphetamines, apart from their feeding choices.  And she insisted
that we didn't have any control over that [and we do over their feeding
choice?].  Ah, well, this is how I learn to be a great radio talk show host,
yes?

Well, overall, I think it went pretty well, even though it could have been
better, and that is my contribution to this year's World Breastfeeding
Month.

Time to sign off, get in the car, and take my firstborn child off to
college.

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC
In the Sierra Nevada foothills

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html