Only Jean can get me out of lurk mode!! I am on a wild teaching schedule
after a month's vacation, and when I open my computer it flashes me this
task list that drives me crazy.
I did note the thread about group classes for moms, and thought about
describing my situation, but it depresses me to write about it sometimes.
I am a non-nurse LC working in a 100-bed department where there are 9000
very hi-tech births/year(95% epidural rate, 17% c-sections). Although the
nursing staff have been given several in-service courses, they are just too
over-loaded to deal with breastfeeding, and the artificial-milk presence is
very strong in our dept. So, I am basically on my own to help not only the
post natal moms, but to deal with any and every breastfeeding problem in the
whole medical center.
And all that in only 5 hours, 4 days a week, since I have a busy teaching
schedule all over the country.
I could never get to all the rooms, and sit a nice long time with each mom,
however, I found that if I sat in one room, the moms who needed help came to
me. This worked fairly well in the beginning, but more and more moms heard
about me and the small meeting room where we met just couldn't accomodate us
all. The hospital finally agreed to break walls and build a beautiful
breastfeeding room, and that is where we meet. I wanted a room that did not
feel institutional, where moms could escape the energy of the hospital and
come into a calm loving atmosphere.
There is space for about 30 moms and babies.
They come in at about 9:00. I help the first few moms get latched and
settled. Once the room is full and all the babies are either latched or
peacefully sleeping in mothers' arms, I start to demonstrate positioning and
latch.
I then quote my colleague Jane Abramovitz who says that the main problem in
breastfeeding is not that mothers don't have enough milk, but that they
don't have enough information.
I then describe how the breast produces milk, which leads to baby-led
feeding (hunger cues)which leads to the necessity that the baby be with his
mother, and not in the nursery with other screaming babies. I point out that
when the babies are in this room in their mothers' arms they are quiet, but
on the other side of the wall, you hear babies in the nursery screaming.
There is roomin-in in our hospital, but many mothers do not know about it,
or do not understand the importance. After they leave my lecture, no one
will want their baby to be in the nursery!!
My point is to teach the mom to watch the baby not the clock....there is no
clock in my room!!
We discuss signs of hunger, signs of satiety, and we decide that the baby
pretty well calls the shots, and therefore becomes a self-confident human,
not dependent as some think.
I use lots of humour and analogies.
I answer questions, and by this time more babies have starting rooting like
crazy to join the picnic. Several days a week I have students who help moms
and babies get attached.
By this time I will have chosen several moms that I want to concentrate on,
and work with them, go out to the rooms where there are moms after c-section
who need help and can't get to me, run over to the pediatric hospital to
help a mom whose baby has just undergone brain surgery, run down to the
gynecology ward where there are moms hospitilized with mastitis and need
help, and even sometimes have been called to the ICU to help pump a mom who
is unconscious after a car accident and the dad is hysterical to get milk
home to the baby who is waiting for his munch.
I do not stop for a minute to drink, pee, or breathe. Documentation, you
ask? You must be kidding. When I have 8 more LC's working with me
maybe......sigh.
Those who think that only a nurse should be a hospital-based LC are so
wrong. My nurse friends said that they would never agree to work in this
situation. Only a crazy breastfeeding nut with LLL roots and the love of
the profession would do this.
After writing this, I am glad that today is my day-off. Anybody want to
start a thread on burn-out? I'm too tired.
It was so hard to come back to my situation after spending a week in Chloe
Fisher's clinic. what an incredible experience!!
Happy holidays to all of you.
Esther Grunis, IBCLC, NN(non-nurse)
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www2.iol.co.il/communities/breastfeed/
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