I am the program coordinator for the lactation program at a community
hospital in Boulder, Colorado.  While we have a really good initiation
rate, 95%, I have been frustrated for the past few years because I felt
we were going "backwards". The attitude seemed to be - we're good
enough, we don't have to try to be better.  It felt like formula was
being given left and right and especially at night it seemed to be a
problem. and I was constantly having to "correct" the inaccurate
information moms were getting from the nurses (and often docs too).

At our hospital we don't have a "nursery."  The babies room in pretty
much all the time.  Even our NICU babies have their own rooms (room for
parents is attached).  I was hearing from the day nurses that a lot of
the time there would be a bunch of babies in the nursing core (an
enclosed area for the nurses station, med room, etc) in the morning.  I
felt like, if I can just get the nurses to understand that frequent
feeding is normal, healthy behavior, they'll tell the parents that and
encourage them to "just breastfeed the baby."

I have been an LC at this hospital for 10 years, but just recently
started the "coordinating" piece.  One of the first things I did was
volunteer to do the Education bulletin board for the Mom/Baby unit in
February.  And I just stuck to the basics.  Then I put up a lactation
bulletin board (which I need a catchy name for if anyone has any
suggestions) and I put up information on that.

I happened to be in the nursing core the other night (I'm not often
there at night), and one of the nurses started telling me the things I
had been putting up made her realize she had been telling moms the
wrong things, and now she knew what to tell them.  And when they said
there baby wants to eat all the time, she tells them that they should
breastfeed them as much as they want and that will help bring their
milk in sooner and in abundant amounts.  Another nurse chimed in,
pretty much the same thing.  One of them said, "We used to have a bunch
of babies in here at night, now we tell the moms to keep them and feed
them."

I had to share this because I know we all sometimes feel like we're
trying to do it all ourselves, and this gave me a glimmer of hope.

Andrea Tran RN, IBCLC
Erie, Colorado

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