I, too, was absolutely horrified at the segment, particularly because I have
to follow it up tomorrow with that beast of an interviewer.   I am the LC they
are going to "feature" on the 3-day segment, and I am not quite sure how--in
four or five minutes--I am going to correct any of the misinformation (or if
I'll even have the floor to do so--they are having me in mostly for positioning
and latch-on, and then the real "experts" are going to do the meaty
stuff--like today's expert, for example, or day 3's expert, who is going to do the
"myth-busting," such as "does nipple confusion really exist?" or "how do you boost
low milk supply?"   I can't wait to see how they botch that up.

That ped today was awful--kept equating bmilk and formula, the whole bit.
She was also in this really stupid, inappropriate lacy top.

I can tell you that the best thing to do is to write to NBC.   The Amazon
thing is a waste of time, because I can tell you first-hand what will happen.
There was a book published less than a year ago by a local ped here in NYC and
it was terrible on breastfeeding--said things like LC's are only emotional
hand-holders and that we all diagnose tight frenulums, etc., etc.    He said that
you would be better off having your mother or sister in to help you and that
the LC can come only if she leaves her "equipment" at home.   Etc., etc--you
could basically write the script.   Anyhow, a bunch of LC's here wrote negative
reviews of the book, and they were solid, well-supported criticisms--not
loose-cannon, hot-headed stuff.   We all read Amazons guidelines and made sure
that we always referred to material in the book, etc., etc.   And two things
happened:   First, there was an immediate flurry of glowing, positive reviews on
the book, many written by his friends who are MD's and some written by others
(one was his wife--I happen to know her name!) saying that the book was
wonderful and that the breastfeeding advice in particular was excellent, etc.   These
reviews were so numerous, that by the end of one day, the negative reviews
were "buried" on page 4 of the review section (who reads to page 4, esp. after
all the reviews are so good?).   Secondly, his publicist wrote to Amazon
complaining about the reviews, and Amazon wrote to all of us saying that the reviews
do not fall within their guidelines and have been removed.   I think that
Amazon is not the way to go here (although it can't hurt)--remember that at the
end of the day, Amazon makes no money if a book is overwhelmingly reviewed
badly.

Since I am in this segment, I have met the producer of the show.   Needless
to say, I think that this segment is driven by her own personal feelings about
breastfeeding.   The bigger producers-that-be, and the executives at NBC need
to be informed by our community (especially the MD's, since they are really
"padding" this segment with medical doctors to make it authoritative and
credible) that the information was spun badly and that the medical info was just
plain wrong, and was NOT supported by research.   The producer was lazy and didn't
do her job.   The stuff about the "cons" of breastfeeding being restrictions
on maternal diet and medications is egregious.

Wish me luck...

Heather Kelly, MA, IBCLC

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