I come from feisty stock. My 79 year old mom still substitute teaches in the Chicago Public Schools. My 80 year old dad is having his memoirs of covering the Civil Rights and Black Nationalists movements published next year by the University of Michigan Press. Both continue to be life long activists struggling for the racial equality. Have they gotten weary at times, yes. Do they get angry, yes. But have they retired, OH NO!
I'd have to contend with two cantankerous elders if I even breathe the thought of leaving my profession. Take a sabbatical yes, a vacation okay. I would be hearing the voices of my grandparents and great aunts and uncles yelling from their grave, "Girl, you better get off your high horse and get goin" I am descended from a feisty bunch that tends to work well into their eighties and only slow down in their late nineties. Folks that didn't have the opportunity to attend high school or college until my parent's generation. That and being the first physician in my family, one of a very few black women physicians in the US. If I spent all my energy focusing on the disrespect of colleagues, the discrimination I have faced, I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning. However I know despite my struggles, I have been priveleged to help so many who didn't have a voice, who needed that special reassurance, who needed someone to stand up and draw the first line in the sand.
The work we do matters. I am certain every person on this list has touched countless lives in ways they cannot even imagine. For every visible defeat, I am sure all of us have had many small victories. I find solace knowing that I do make a difference. I am grateful that I had the opportunity, the choices to work at a time that so many of my sisters have not.
I do this work not just for those today, but also for those coming behind me.
Lactation work just like every other aspect of US health care is in turmoil. There are a whole lot of unhappy campers out there. But giving up and walking away doesn't solve the problem, doesn't satisfy my desire to affect change.
So please find that place for renewal and recharge. Pass that valuable knowledge to another person interested in doing the work.
Take care of yourselves, you are needed.
Best,
Pierrette Mimi Poinsett MD
Petaluma CA
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