Hi Tina

It is so refreshing to hear someone who has some perspective on this weight
gain/successful lactation bugbear!
I see time and again mothers who have their confidence undermined by "Health
Professionals" who panic. I have been reading on Lactnet lately about how
long it sometimes takes to establish a milk supply (and have had some of
those mothers myself). I see many babies who seemingly "don't get their act
together" and when I get the history there are epidurals, and pethediene etc
used during delivery.
I see mothers who expect to breastfeed (most mothers in Aussie do) and are a
mess by day 3 (when they are coming home these days) because so much
pressure is put on them in the hospital for "baby to gain weight dear". If
it doesn't then it's off to the peads guy and what does he (it's usually a
man) say? Don't worry dear you can always put it on a bottle.
To end my best was when the baby health care nurse phoned me worried about
one our mothers as the baby had lost so much weight. I was confused and she
clarified things by looking up in her record and informed me the baby had
lost 400g in 2 days (birth weight was 2.900g). When I pointed out that that
was nearly 1/6 of the babys total weight she phoned the hospital to find
they had made a mistake in filling out the record card and the baby had
merely lost 40g! Still a worry, but more in perspective I felt!
It bugs me that it's always the breastfeeding that is at fault here (read
Mother for breastfeeding) and never the conflicting advice given in hospital
or the lack of confidence given the mother etc etc.
Sorry to go on...
Regards Jackie