As a hospital lactation RN, I agreee wholeheartedly with the frustration at
being blamed for a mom "failing" at breastfeeding.  My partner and I do the
best we can with the situations we're put in, but it's really hard
sometimes.

Jo, as for removing maternal exhaustion from your hospital's list of
reasons to supplement, I suggest you get your hands on Baby Friendly's list
of acceptable medical reasons for supplementation and then get your
hospital to incorporate it into a policy.  I have it, but not on the
computer.  If you want to e-mail me your snail mail address, I'll send it
to you.

We too have that problem, but since our hospital decided to press on with
going baby friendly, we've enjoyed the support of our supervisors.  We are
working (albeit at a frustratingly slow pace) to change the culture on our
unit.  I have had a fair amount of success by helping my peers to view
artificial feeds as medicine with many potential side effects instead of a
benign intervention to "help" the mother out.  When a baby is supplemented,
our policy now states that the RN must advise the mother that it is not
medically indicated (unless it is) and must offer her alternatives to
soothe the baby, as well as explain how the supplement can undermine
breastfeeding and trigger unwanted medical side effects in the baby.

We are by no means there yet, but we're taking baby steps.  Marsha Walker's
article "Just one Bottle" is a great one to use with nurses who view
formula as benign.

As for being blamed for failure, I don't know how to deal with that one.
I'm convinced that there are women out there who really don't want to
breastfeed, but, for some reason, want to be able to tell everyone they
tried and couldn't.  I haven't figured out how to know if this is true,
it's just a feeling I get with some of the moms.  I still give them my all,
but my frustration level gets pretty high some times.  Anybody have any
ideas?

Respectfully,
Barb Fibich
Milwaukee, WI

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