Oh how familiar that sounds!  1-Being called to the NICU to help a mom finally breastfeed (after infant has "proved" readiness by "successfully nippling" which in the NICU language where I worked means taking a bottle!) and by the way, she baby is scheduled to be discharged later today! AAARRRGGGHHH  2-Same thing for a mom going home 24 hours after birth, baby hasn't really nursed yet, so LC, go in and fix it.  By the way, her husband will be here to take her home in an hour and he has to get right back to work once he gets her and baby home.  Double AAARRRGGGHHH.  Then we get feedback that "the Lactation Consultant was no help".

Regarding nurses giving bottles "so mom can get some rest before she goes home".  I found that the biggest offenders are night nurses.  Unfortunately, there seem to be two kinds on nurses all too often making up the majority of night shifts-new grads with only their clinical experience who are on nights because day shift hours tend to go preferentailly to those with most seniority and nurses who like nights because they are more able to do things their own way with fewer people looking over their shoulders.  Of course the latter are more than willing to "train" the newbies in their way of doing things.   (I believe it has also been shown that most of the drug diversions by nurses are done on the night shift).  I know there are fantastic night nurses who work that shift for very legitimate reasons, but I have noticed that there are more of the ones I have described on nights than on other shifts.

Until ILCA and/or IBLCE are able to come up with that magic wand we can wave and make all these frustrations go away (I can dream can't I?) we have to do the best we can with the moms we are able to help, avoid getting burned out and keep being the squeaky wheel-eventually it will get oiled.

Winnie

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