Warning: vent alert
Dr Jack said:
>Right on Linda.  But there are also nurses who use the "too busy"
>excuse because they do not know what to do to help the mothers, or
>because they don't want t

I also find the excuse ridiculous. The worst case I personally know of
(that has been discussed on this list) was of a mother who's baby has
had endless hospital admissions for "failure to thrive", due to severe
formula allergies.

After her c-section, no one helped her latch the baby on because they
were "too busy". When she got sore, bleeding nipples, no one helped her
because they were still "too busy". When she went to the shower, she
came back and found a nurse bottlefeeding her baby formula. The nurse
presumably was not "too busy" to do that. The mother erroneously
believed that this meant she could not breastfeed, and everyone was "too
busy" to explain, so her baby was bottlefed by the nurses for a couple
more days until she was able to do it herself. A couple of weeks later,
the baby was back in NICU with health problems which were directly
related to formula allergy/intolerance problems and the baby continued
to have frequent admissions with FTT and infections, for the next 6
months. The mother pulled the situation back from the brink by
relactating at 6 months and managing to give her baby a few ounces of
EBM each day (which had a miraculous effect, btw). She fortunately was
not "too busy" to try pumping two hourly, round the clock for 6 months
:-^ However, her baby continues to need monitoring and frequent
appointments with dietitians, peds and the GP due to the damage that has
been done.

As well as costing our National Health Service a fortune, dealing with a
baby who probably would have been fine if breastfed, "too busy" syndrome
has left one mother severely traumatised and blighted the life of a
wonderful, intelligent child. I feel so angry because a few minutes in
the early days, from an encouraging, supportive nurse who had the most
basic knowledge of positioning could have prevented all this. The
tragedy is that this mother has recently been told she can never have
any more children, so she will probably never have the chance to
breastfeed.
--
Anna (Mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995, Alice, born 11th Sept 1996,
??? due 18th April 1998)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna