Dear Lactnetters, I need to vent. I was just hired as the only LC at a 160
del/month military hospital and am tasked with developing, implementing the
program and answering all the consults hospital wide. There is only one Home
Health Nurse to see that many dels a month, she is also an LC. The military
is now an HMO and it is despecable how cheap they are.They will not cover
pump rentals. Are population consists of a large marine corps base, and a
large %  are poor with a high domestic violence rate and lack of social
support. The staffing ratios are so low I am sure they do not meet NAAN or
AWOHN standards. Because of this I get called for anything to do with BF
because the staff doesn't have the time required to deal with babies who were
not given the opportunity to be skin to skin or latch after delivery because
the nurses have to get the paperwork done so they can tow and get a bed ready
for the next pt. It is not their fault but rather the administration who
wants to up the del rate to receive more money from Tricare Prime, the HMO.In
the past week, I have seen 5 cases of cracked nipples from poor latch, all
the mom's had not seen their babes for 12 to 24 hours after delivery, b/o the
ridiculous hospital design, they moved the pp onto 7 and the nursery and L/D
on 2. There were no staff to bring these moms down to see their babies. 4
cases of nipple confusion, all R/T being bottle fed, 2 corrected, 2 did not.
1 mom so upset she is on verge of pp depression because she may never get the
baby to learn to suckle correctly at the breast. I have been working with her
for 4 days and the baby just is not getting it, I have tried everything that
has ever worked for me before. All this and the DOD is going to spend 3
million doing a OB sim project that will test LDRP's, Am I  wrong here or
does the entire civilian community know they do not work.......?????? But yet
my budget is 5,000 $ to begin and fund for one whole year....URGH.....Ah, I
feel better until the nursery and L/D nurses read my email about finger
feeding and skin to skin and I am labeled the resident nipple nazi.... I want
to move to Sweden... Does anyone know of any jobs in Sweden ???????? Lisa
Mooney, RN,BSN, LC (Hopefully IBCLC soon)

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