I want to put my .02 worth on this topic before I go off to work this
morning.
I am a non-RN working in a hospital setting most of the 20 years that I have
been in this profession.  For lack of time I will make a few statements, and
continue later in the day.
1. Breastfeeding is NOT a medical issue.
2. I am an integral part of the hospital staff whose best advantage is that
I am not a RN and if I have any medical questions, I have whom to ask.  The
truth is that most of the time, the nurses have not been able to answer
those questions.
3. There is a certain way of thinking that nurses learn in nursing school
which often contradicts with LC thinking. I often say to nursing students
when they answer questions: "You are thinking like a nurse.  Forget what you
learned in nursing school and start over again with that question."
One of our best breastfeeding nurses came to me the other day and said ,
" Esther, now I know what you mean by nurse brain."  She had been helping a
mother whose baby preferred one breast over the other, and in fact could not
latch onto the second.  I told the mom to always start with the easier
breast so that the baby could calm down, relax, get some milk in her
stomach, and then tackle the difficult side.  The nurse said to me that
"nurse brain"  said to start with the more difficult breast first. I have
millions of such examples, but no time now.
4. Bottom line: my recommendation: every nurse who works in a maternity ward
should be a IBCLC  and not every LC working in the maternity hospital should
be a nurse.
5. The best nurses I work with are those who were LC's first and then
decided to go to nursing school.
6. The doctors in our hospital respect me much more because I am not a
nurse.
7. My breastfeeding training and work with babies for so many years has
helped me diagnose things that everyone else on the staff missed, including
heart problems,UTI, submucosal cleft , etc.

Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel

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

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