Pat,
>you did give her support even though =
>you said that "I suppose she should have known better than to turn to =
>'me' for such support."

I am known as somewhat of a "breastfeeding fanatic" ;-^

>I wondered about the statement 'I feel uncomfortable about the kind of =
>advice that is given out"- to my mind we are not there to give =
>advice-but to give information

I don't give advice, as I am not qualified to, and in this situation,
the mother wasn't even asking for information. It was the advice she
received from others that I was uncomfortable about - because she had
interpreted it as "you have to pump and dump for a month".

>and that means all the information that =
>is available on a subject so the mother can make an informed decision =

The mother made an informed decision based on information she herself
had obtained. I gave her a couple of URLs, but I don't know if she
looked them up.

>In the case of  =
>illicit drugs we can not judge how often etc a mother uses it so all the =
>covering info needs to be given as only the mother truly knows what her =
>use is

Drug use is one of those things people are rarely totally honest about,
but I didn't get the impression of any dishonesty from this mother.

>The mother made her decision with all the information you were able to =
>give her and now has a happy baby again  what a great ending,Don`t you =
>wish all the situations ended with baby 'grinning  as she nursed'.=20

I was thrilled. But she did it, not me. I think she just needed me to
say that she didn't need to wean - she could change her mind.

>There are factors to take in to account if the baby is having tests and =
>illicit drugs are found does this pose a risk to mother of having baby =
>removed from her care by social services?

She phoned her GP to ask his advice before she spoke to me - he wasn't
sure, but suggested 72 hours before putting the baby back to the breast.
So, presumably he knows she smoked a joint before breastfeeding.
However, as this concern was expressed by several people, I have dropped
her an email and suggested she postpone the tests (which are just for
anaemia and thyroid function). Knowing several people who work for
social services, I can't imagine anything untoward happening (if by some
unfortunate change, THC was found in the baby's blood), provided she
'fessed up at the time. I know someone who's mother used to put canabis
resin in her bottle and they did nothing! :-(
--
Anna H. Breastfeeding advocate and writer.
http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/

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