LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Diane Wiessinger <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 4 Oct 2000 07:56:38 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (37 lines)
There's a flip side to the notion of "committed" moms:

I'd worked by phone with a LLLL in pain, and we hadn't come to a resolution
before I had to leave on vacation.  So I referred her to an excellent LC who
saw her in person, got it fixed, and reported back to me.  The other LC kept
saying, in admiration, "she was so committed to breastfeeding," and it
didn't sound right to me so I started thinking about it.

One of the mental "tests" I sometimes apply is, "What if it were about this
woman losing a leg, or her vision - something we *all* consider critically
important?  Would she/we behave the same way?"  Would a doctor ever say, in
admiration, "She was so committed to eliminating that brain tumor"?

For this LLLL, it was way past "feeling committed"; losing bfing would mean
losing her very pattern of self.  There is a group of women for whom
"committed" is too tentative a word.  They're the ones who are a total joy
to work with because they come to us saying, essentially, "I'm going to be
breastfeeding.  Can you help me make it go more smoothly?"  With oh so many
others I feel like a car repairman who's being asked not only to repair the
car (within a time frame) but also to convince the owner that the car's
worth keeping in the first place.  How many of us have had clients fly to
California or England (or Toronto :-) ) for world-class breastfeeding help,
the way people will fly to save a liver?

"I'm committed to bfing" says to me, now that I think about it, that she has
considered the alternative and rejected it... for now.  It would have been
refreshing - and more accurate - for that LC to have said of the LLLL, "She
couldn't not breastfeed."

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY

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

ATOM RSS1 RSS2