I believe the issue of whether incentives work or not depends on the
incentive and whether it/they make sense for the woman; ie in her life
situation.

Having worked in a WIC office (long ago), I know that what strikes one
mother as a reasor FOR doing something would never convince someone else.
Why?  Because each mother considers incentives, suggestions, etc. within
the context in which she lives.  If the suggestion does not fit with her
life pattern, she is highly unlikely to use it/take it, etc.

How many of you, like me, chose NOT to use formula packs? (I got three
cases without asking in 1970). Why did I not? Such use did not fit with
what I wanted for my baby.  It was not something that worked with the life
pattern I was involved in.

Had I not valued other things (not least the baby's health and wellbeing,
to say nothing of avoiding the stench that such stuff has when it goes in
AND when it comes out), I might not have been so staunch in not using the
stuff.  After all, I didn't pay for it!

Let's examine our own lives and the lives of others before concluding that
a particular incentive will not work.  Perhaps the problem is we are not
being creative enough to figure out what  might be valued by others...
(just a thought)



"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.com/~kga/lactation.html
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html

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