How outrageous!   Does this hospital believes it *owns* the baby?  Do they
know *nothing* about antibodies?  Do they know nothing about dangers of ABM?
Do they not understand that .............etc, etc?  I am not an advocate for
litigation but mention of this word might have got an immediate placement of
the baby in his mother's arms.

I do so hope this mother can complain vociferously about her treatment, in
writing too and to copy the letter to a few department heads and chief
executive.  If she is not able to muster the energy to knock a few heads
together, there must be someone else who can do this on her behalf.

AH, feel MUch better, I've chewed on this all day, and what a lovely spring
day it has been today, I drove eastwards along the bottom of  the steep slopes
of the South Downs, passing all the new lambs in the fields.

Whilst on my travels I called in to Henfield to meet a Health Visitor who
often telephones me, we had never met face to face.  Before meeting her I went
into the village's chemist, had a check of the shelves and espied the only
type of nipple shield for sale.  This was an instrument of torture that should
only be seen in a chamber of horrors museum - it was one with a rigid plastic
thingummyjig that you place over the nipple and then on the end of this thing
attach what looks like the really old, old fashioned long, long, teats that
you saw on the bottles of yesteryear.    Whats more, to hold the hard plastic
bit over the nipple - not the breast(!) you have to use your forefinger and
third finger at the base of this thing which only about a quarter of an inch
wide, so your fingers are at the base of your own nipple.    Because the
nipple is so long and thin, the baby feeds on the end of this thing with its
mouth about an inch away from even the end of your own nipple!! The baby is
completely removed from the mother's body and has to make a tight
pouting/kissing mouth to hold on.  Meanwhile you nipple is being drawn up the
down the inside of this hard plastic 'sleeve' . One just has to laugh or one
would cry.  You know, I know all about these things because my husband was
sent out by my midwife to buy one of these for me nearly 19 years ago!

WELL - I just had to buttonhole the pharmacist and tell him that this kind of
thing went out with the ark, that I was utterly horrified he should have it on
his shelves; that it was an instrument of exquisite torture to mother and to
her starving baby and the only place for it was in a museum or the bin!   I
also said how pleased I was to call in and see what he was selling the local
breastfeeding women because when a mother called me from the area I would make
sure she was not using such a terrible thing.

Kind regards
Helen M Woodman, NCT BfC, UK