Jeanette:
Thanks for your very well expressed post.  Having had word get back
to me with what a mom reports I have said and seeing how much that
differs from what I actually said (or at least thought I had said) I
have learned to take a mom's or HCP's report of what someone else
said with a grain of NaCl!
One of my favorite expressions is,"What you think you heard me say
may not be the same as what I think I said."  This is one reason
communicating via more than one sense is so helpful. When I make
this point in presentations to professionals I like to use the Neil
cartoon where a mom is standing by the table bare chested with a
rolling pin in her hand and the dad is saying "I don't think that's
what the book meant by 'rolling your nipples'."
No matter how similar situations may appear, one is never in the
same situation, in the same place, at the same time, with the same
recources available, in the same frame of mind, etc. etc. etc.
Both in our working with moms and with other HCPs, we need to give
the benefit of the doubt and approach different suggestions not as
right or wrong, but as just that-different.  Lactation is certainly
NOT an exact science.  We are constantly learning (one of the main
reasons personal experience alone isn't adequate).  Whenever someone
says something like "but that's not how I learned it" or "but I
(we)'ve always done it..." my response is  that while it is true
that breastfeeding doesn't change, our understanding of it and how
to help if work most effectively does change.
Enough rambling-time to see if the race is on.
Winnie RNC, IBCLC, etc.etc.

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