I work in a hospital with over half of our mothers are on WIC.  There  are 
many mothers who are immigrants from a variety of countries.  It is  very hard 
for me to find any of these mothers willing to exclusively  breastfeed.  They 
all state on admission that they plan to do both  breastfeeding and formula 
feeding.  I always try to encourage exclusive  breastfeeding in the first few 
weeks and than tell them after their milk supply  is well established that if 
they need to introduce formula there would be less  negative impact on her supply.
The WIC program in my state has worked hard to educate and supports  
breastfeeding in their program.  I call my local WIC office to give let  them know 
about moms who have had problems so they can follow up with  them.  All the moms 
that delivery at our hospital have made at least  one visit to the WIC office 
prior to delivering so they already have established  a relationship.  I 
remind the mothers that the WIC office has breastfeeding  support and for them to 
call and get help as needed.
These are some of the comments moms make to me when I try to discourage  
formula feeding over exclusive breastfeeding.
    "I have to go back to work in a couple weeks, so I  need the formula."
    "I want my free formula and if I only breastfeed I  won't get the 
formula."
    "In my country they did not have free formula so I  had to breastfeed.  I 
want the formula so I am just like the other  Americans."
    "I don't have enough milk.  My baby is  always hungry.  My baby does not 
like my milk.  So to all these  comments the mother gives the formula."
 
I try to educate the mothers on these comments but I rarely get  through.  If 
I have a very supportive family I can get a mother to  exclusively breastfeed.
I also am working with the staff who thinks that these mothers are making  
informed decisions and therefore do not need any teaching or encouragement from  
them.
I will keep on teaching and encouraging exclusive breastfeeding along with  
working with the WIC staff.
Ann Perry, RN IBCLC
in snowy Boston, MA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html