Laurie says

>Heather,
>
>Gee you are persistant,

!!!!

 but I sure do appreciate your point of view and
>folks like Kathy D who truly offer us a valuable reality check every day. I
>wonder if all of us could practice lactation consulting on a desert island
>[no diapers, no scales, no tape measures]? I think I could and the rest of
>us too.

I'm sure you're right, Laurie.  Probably be a whole lot better at it,
too.....; )
>
>I very much appreciate Heather's comments re hemoglobin and pregancy weight
>gain measuring. I really wasn't aware of these issues.

Good book is Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth, known as 'ECPC' by
Enkin at al, and of course the Cochrane database is a good resource.


>In my practice, if truly natural bf was going on, there would be little need
>for measuring. If the norm was no mother baby separation, bedding in babies
>nursing UNRESTRICTEDLY, there would be few bf problems.

Ain't that the truth : )


>thing. We practice w/i our culture.

I know...but even within that culture, I still don't know if test weighing
is helpful or useless or merely 'the expected'.   Test weighing can
perpetuate the anti-bf culture that, as you say,  dubs feeding half an hour
after a precious feed as 'highly suspect behaviour'.  One role of the bf
supporter is to educate and empower. ...isn't it?

Just like there are height and
>weight charts, percent of fat we should be, cholesterol levels etc. What is
>truly normal for one is not for the other, but again having some guidelines
>seems prudent.

Why? What are you protecting yourself or the baby or the mother from? If
the guidelines are not telling the truth, or fail to give the whole
picture, you are not protecting them from poor information, that's for
sure.

'Not test weighing' is nothing to do with attachment parenting - which is
certainly not widely practised here. Even the few that do it wouldn't know
what it was called  - unless they visit the US parenting boards on the Net
: ) . I can't go along with your further implication  that it's only safe
not to do test weighing if the parents are into  attachment
parenting.....and bcause most aren't, it's either justifiable or necessary.

Persisting away like crazy : )

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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