Hi all,
Below is a letter from the Oklahoma Coordinator of Postpartum Internation to
the founder of PSI, Jane
Honikman and her response on the show Stronge Medicine about LCs.
I was not at all pleased with her remarks and have voiced my upset.

Crystal Stearns RNC, MS, IBCLC
Mercy Memorial Health Center
Ardmore, OK  73401

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 4:25 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Correspondence with Jane Honikman
>
> Hi Cheryl--
>     Could you take a look at this and forward it on to Crystal?  Thanks.
> --Sheryl
>
> Hello Crystal--
>     Cheryl Jazzar told me that you had contacted her concerning the
> Lifetime
> program about PPD.  Truthfully, I felt validated that your opinion matched
> my
> own.  I corresponded about this with Jane Honikman, the founder and
> executive
> director of PSI.  She was very excited about the program and I tried not
> to
> come across as  being critical.  Here is a copy of that correspondence.
>     Best wishes and please keep in touch!
> --Sheryl Cozad
>
> Hi Jane--
>      The Lifetime website information and your story looked very good.
> The
> whole thing--program and all-- went quite well.  The Strong Medicine
> program put major points across, and I am sure it will have a positive
> impact
> on
> PPD awareness.
>      The only thing that concerned me was the depiction of the lactation
> consultant as an ignorant bully.  (I know you didn't write it!)  Certainly
> untrained labor and delivery nurses trying to show a new mother how to
> breastfeed come across that way sometimes (and well-intentioned family and
> friends), but in Oklahoma the first people who expressed interest in PPD
> information were breastfeeding consultants and La Leche League members.  I
> was a little concerned that they would see that depiction as a slap in the
> face--especially vis-a-vis the depiction of a compassionate doctor with
> loads of spare time on her hands.
>      However, the whole program was a large step forward.  And whenever I
> have encountered an anxious or depressed mother who has decided to stop
> breastfeeding, I always have tried to validate her decision.  Her
> emotional well-being is the larger issue.
>      Congratulations again on excellent work!
>      --Sheryl Cozad
>
>
> Subj:    Re: Congratulations on the media coverage
> Date:   1/18/01 1:45:02 PM EST
> From:   [log in to unmask] (Jane Honikman)
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I agree with you Sheryl. I was so surprised as to how they depicted the
> lactation consultant but the truth is many are like that. The writer must
> have had a negative experience? Anyway, if the breastfeeding folks watched
> it perhaps they will realize that they DO need to change their training. I
> was upset to read about your health status. And very impressed by your
> energy to keep doing so much work for PPD. THANKS so much!! Jane
>

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