I remember this parable and had it posted on my bulletin board in my office 
for years.  Today, I couldn't resist adapting it to what I feel most of the 
time and sounds like my situation. Here's what I came up with.  I hope this 
doesn't violate any copywrite rules.

THE PARABLE OF THE LATCH:

Once upon a time there was a OB unit on the edge of town.  The staff there 
were good and life in the OB unit was good. One day a Mother/Baby staff 
person noticed a baby not latching well.  The staff quickly called the 
Lactation Consultant to latch this baby and save him from formula. The next 
day this same staff member noticed two babies not latching.  She again 
called the LC for help, and both babies were latched after much 
difficulty.  And the following day, four babies were having difficulties 
and would not latch. And then eight, then more, and still more!

The Lactation Consultant organized herself quickly, setting up inservices 
and training nurses to assist the babies that were having difficulty 
latching.  The LC felt as if she was working 24 hours a day, doing prenatal 
BF classes, seeing out patients and answereing phone calls about babies 
that couldn't latch.  And each day the number of non-latching babies 
increased. The LC tried to organize herself efficiently and was now 
latching many babies each day.  While not all the babies, now very 
numerous, could be latched before discharge, the LC felt she was doing well 
to latch as many as she could each day.  Indeed, the unit management 
blessed her in her good work.  And life in the OB unit continued on that 
basis.

One day, however, the LC raised the question, "But what is causing all 
these babies to have difficulty latching?  Help me organize a committee to 
go to L&D to find out what procedures are being done to cause all those 
latching problems in the first place!"  

The seeming logic of the management countered:  "And if the LC is sent to 
study the procedures in L&D, who will keep helping the babies latch in 
postpartum?  We need every concerned person here!"

"But don't you see," cried the one lone LC voice," if we find out what is 
causing the latching difficulties in the first place, we can stop the 
problem and more babies will latch!  By reviewing our procedures like 
epidurals, vacumes, early inductions etc., we may be able reduce or 
eliminate the cause of the problem!"  "It is too risky and might cause 
overtime, and besides it will make the OB docs mad" said the management.   
And so the number of babies not latching increased daily.  Latched babies 
increased, but those who didn’t latch  increase even more.

And similiar to Jennifer's note  - Clearly, we need to do our part in 
helping those non-latching babies.  But we also need to take the risk of 
raising our voices and asking why they're not latching in the first place 
and what we can do about it.

Pamela Edenfield MSN, RNC, CNS, IBCLC
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Lactation Consultant
Youngstown Ohio

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