Laurie  W. described another hospital's philosophy about helping
breastfeeding mothers this way:

Moms [parents] are responsible for their learning prenatally and postnatally
re bf. They should seek out learning opportunities and make the committment
to bf. The LC cannot make her learn or be committed. Also most moms do not
absorb much if anything in the early postpartum. So her philosophy as I
understood it is to ask "how is bf going" and if the mom says fine, even if
there are bottles all over the room, she leaves her card and the hosp bf
booklet saying here are some tips that will help you with bf or make bf
easier and lets it go. I asked what if there are bottles when you come in or
the baby was in nsy last nite when you get report, and she replied what does
that say about the moms' committment to bf? She does not assume, as I would,
that the mom just didn't have the info, rather she should have it and
decided not to act on it


Well, I have several thoughts about this. One is that I believe women do
absorb information post-partum, and are very vulnerable to misinformation.
So the mother who has a room full of bottles may be hearing from her family,
visitors, and possibly other nurses that she "should" be giving bottles to
the baby (because it cries, because her colostrum isn't 'enough' or any
other reason), and the LC may be the only one to give her a different point
of view.

The second is that many women do seek out information about breastfeeding,
from what they imagine are reasonably appropriate sources - their doctors,
their mothers, friends who have already had babies, books such as the
ever-popular 'what to expect' series - and do not realize that this
information may well be inaccurate and frequently unhelpful. How are they to
know?

Third, I think many first-time mothers are so overwhelmed by their
anticipation of labour and birth that they don't think a lot about
breastfeeding. They may want to do it, but they may not have done a lot of
planning because it's hard to really imagine it until the baby is actually
born. These are the mothers who need more help, not less.

And third, I think about that old carseat comparison. At the hospital where
I had my last baby, a nurse came out to the car to supervise the parents
putting the baby correctly in the carseat. I can't imagine that she would
have shrugged her shoulders if I just held the baby in my arms while we
drove off, and say "well, I guess they just weren't committed to carseat
use." I think I would have heard some pretty strong advice on why carseats
were important every single time we took the baby in the car.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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