Renee Beebe asks who will teach it if we (IBCLCs) don't.
The restriction on teaching bottle feeding comes from Baby-Friendly,
which stipulates that bottle feeding is not to be a topic in *routine
group teaching sessions on maternity wards*. Baby-Friendly policy does
not prevent mothers from getting information on safe infant feeding!
All maternity institutions and practitioners have an ethical
obligation to ensure that mothers and babies are cared for adequately.
How 'adequacy' is defined varies with jurisdictions. To my mind
adequacy must include individualized information tailored to the
specific needs of each mother and baby, in addition to routine
information given to all mothers, but as my personal plan for world
domination has yet to be fully implemented, it's not up to me at this
time.
Baby-Friendly does not allow bottle feeding *in groups* for two
reasons: it makes it seem like a normal routine part of infant care,
which it is not; also, it is pedagogically inappropriate because
bottle feeding is so complicated it should be taught individually with
hands-on return demonstrations to ensure parents have understood the
details of aseptic technique, exact measurements, giving the feed, and
cleaning all the parts involved afterwards.
I do agree that IBCLCs are better suited than most anyone else to
teach how to give bottles in a way that resembles breastfeeding,
because no one else in maternity care knows more about breastfeeding.
I can see no reason why the IBCLC should be prevented from teaching
individual mothers about bottle feeding, but I strongly support the
Baby-Friendly policy banning it from routine group teaching.

Hope this helps, Renee!

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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