I also saw the episode of ER last night and the touching scene with the
grieving mom talking about the touching times at night with her
children...nursing them just before dawn.  It really touched me, because I
remember the brief time nursing my first son...It was before I had taken
responsibility to learn about BF myself and had listened to the RN who taught
my childbirth classes and the Ped. who was my son's first Dr.  Between the two
of them, I got all sorts of "valuable info" (yes, being more than a touch
sarcastic here) like..."you can only feed 2 minutes each side the first day
then increase 1min/day"...."you HAVE to give a bottle of ABM after each
feeding to 'make sure' that he gets enough milk"..."your milk only comes in
every 4 hours so if he gets hungry in between, you'll HAVE to give a
bottle"...needless to say, he was a total bottle baby by about two weeks.
HOWEVER, the first two weeks, I still remember getting up several times a
night and rocking him in the chair and nursing him...just he and I and it was
just about the most special time in my life  (In spite of what they said, I
refused to give bottles at night...it was our special time together).  Too bad
I believed that all medical people knew about BF since I naively thought that
if they TOLD me they knew what they were talking about, they really did.
Funny, he's almost 9 years old and I can still cry about this.

By the time #2 came along, I MADE sure I knew about the basics of BF so that I
wouldn't have to listen to the "experts."  I was just too determined to make
it work and it did...he breastfed for about 2 years.  Actually, it was thanks
to those "experts" the first time around that I was determined to learn
everything I could about BF and to help other women with as much CORRECT info
as I could get my hands on.  Thanks to Jan Barger, Linda Kutner, Judy Lauwers
and Carole Peterson for helping me to attain this goal.

Another little frustrating part of my life... I have worked with the state WIC
program for over 4 years now...am now the ONLY IBCLC to serve 12 counties, yet
they still cannot see their way clear to allow me more than 29 hours per week
( thereby not having to give me benefits) YET they have NO problem with
calling me on my days off to have me call women with probs because no one else
seems to be able to answer lots of BF questions that come up.  Unfortunately,
I love what I do so much that I always end up helping them because I remember
all too well how scary having a newborn can be.  After days like yesterday
when I helped a 4# premie twin latch on for the first time since her birth on
1/2/99, I know it is really worth it, but it would sure be nice to be
appreciated for my knowledge and experience.

Sorry for the length but thanks for the collective ear. :-)   Just a little
touchy tonight
   Amanda Copeland, IBCLC
Griffin, GA