It is so easy to mix causes - human beings are such messy people!

One thing that struck me as I was getting ready for the exam the first time
(9-1/2 yrs ago), as I read Ruth Lawrence, was that she made no apologies for
the evidence-based practices she suggested in her book.

The way I articulated this to myself was,
"Breastfeeding works best and easiest when you do it like this. Certainly
you can mess around with the process a lot and it will still work. The
boundaries of "where it works" are individual -the fact that your girlfriend
had her baby in childcare 50 hours a week and pumped once a day and it was
fine - means it's possible to do that. Doesn't mean it will be possible for
you and your baby.

This is true about so many situations! But as an LC this has helped me to
share info with moms without apology, and to be more and more clear about
what is my opinion and ought to be shared as such. Moms and dads respond to
this too. They're certainly getting lots of advice that's stated as God's
truth -- we LC's were part of the vanguard on Evidence Based Practice (we
didn't even know it!) and it's refreshing for parents to hear,
"This is what the studies say.  Now I'm going to tell you something that's
going to be tinged by what I've seen and what I've lived. Take what I tell
you and make your decisions based on your life!"
Dawn Kersula RN, FACCE, IBCLC
Brattleboro VT

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