>Heather says "In fact, sometimes the notion of nipple confusion doesn't
>help. It
>has made some units think it is ok to give formula to a bf baby, as
>long as it is in a cup or a syringe. Quite, quite wrong......"
>
>The problem, again, Heather, is winnowing out what we want to see in a
>piece of research...and using that to support erroneous practice. This is
>akin to the nipple shield argument, making the use of a shield a
>blasphemous thing. Everything is a tool, to be used in the hands of a
>skilled professional, with judgement backed up by knowledge.


I take your point, Kathleen...that it's the knowledge, skills and
information 'context' in which would-be breastfeeding women are
supported that counts, not the nuts-and-bolts and the bits-and-pieces
that are used.

I would say it's the lack of this context that allows professionals
to say to a mother (as happened recently locally to a mother I was in
touch with) 'your baby was crying so I gave her a formula feed, but
it was in a syringe'....as if that meant it didn't matter, that the
fact the formula was not in a bottle made it ok, not a big deal.

It's the lack of this context that allows otherwise caring, dedicated
professionals to half-read research and half-understand it and yet
wholly change their practice on the back of it. Case in point:
mothers in the UK are sometimes told their babies 'must be on the
breast X minutes or he won't get the hindmilk'....which is of course
a half-read, half-understood version of all the stuff on
foremilk/himdmilk/baby-cued feeding and so on.  Second case in point:
mothers told they 'must only ever feed on one side', again a
half-read, half-understood version of 'let your baby decide when to
come off the first side, instead of switching him to the other side
after 10 minutes.'

This is why it is such good news that Baby Friendly is now directing
its attention to the training of health professionals, so they 'grow
up' professionally, knowing the basics.

This will be a very small step towards creating the right context. I hope.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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