Ann Slaughter posted that she will try staying around on Lactnet, and I am
glad she did.  I also appreciate her recognition that the definition of
zealot as someone who gives 'great,often too great devotion to a cause or
intense activity in its support' could be offensive to some list members.

What is too great, or too intense an activity when the lives of babies hang
in the balance?

Since human milk is of much more critical importance to the very survival of
premature babies than to babies born at term, and the more premature they
are, the more critical it is, it puzzles me that there seem to be many
professionals in the U.S. working with these vulnerable people who don't
understand that fact, such as the colleagues Ann mentions.
NEC could be virtually eliminated if we stopped allowing premature human
babies to be fed with substances better suited for calves born at term.

It is the (admittedly difficult) job of the professional to let mothers know
that their fear of getting attached to the baby through providing their own
milk for it, increases dramatically the chance that they WILL lose the baby.
Neglecting to inform them of this could place the professional in a very
uncomfortable state of liability.  Sometimes people who are resistant to
facts are susceptible to economic threats.  It is sad to have to use such
tactics among supposedly peace-loving adults, but for the lives of babies I
would be willing to deal with that sadness.

For the record, I have been inside a NICU, am regularly inside a NICU, and
have great respect for the complexity of care of babies whose birth weights
are 500 grams and up.  I can not imagine at all how we would deal with that
complexity in Scandinavia without the precious substance produced in the
breasts of human mothers, be they the babies' own, or the generous donors to
our banks.

Rachel Myr
midwife, IBCLC, and by my own definition not a zealot, despite great
devotion to this activity
Kristiansand, Norway

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