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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 3 Jan 1999 14:51:09 -0600
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>I had hesitated because I do enjoy
>participating in discussions and I don't like to create bad feelings.  I
>also do not wish to be slammed or ignored by the list (esp if I need help
>at a latter date.

You haven't been on this list long enough to know that the slamming and
insults are not standard fare for Lacntet.  We *all* would like to return
to the equanimity that we are used to, as I am sure we will.

>What has really
>stood out is the differences in opinion that for me at least sounds
>........well......not mainstream.

Lori, I read back through the posts that you have written since you joined
Lactnet, and I think that you know that one of our challenges as advocates
of breastfeeding is that *breastfeeding* is not *mainstream.* What is
"mainstream" is formula given to parents who make it clear that they are
breastfeeding, formula as the first solution for any breastfeeding problem,
and "breastfeeding is best, but..." The bottle is THE symbol of baby in the
mainstream culture.

>However you cannot expect the mainstream establishment to follow suit or
>even at times view us as valid when we compare a very necessary procedure
>(such as suctioning) for infants to rape...

What has been questioned here is "a very necessary procedure." What has
been proposed is that we look at what we are doing to mothers and babies
that makes this procedure  necessary so often. Not until we acknowledge
that vigorous suctioning is traumatic for an infant will there be any
incentive to change standard hospital birthing protocol in order to prevent
it.

When we look at babies born in a home setting or in true birthing centers,
we find that the there are ways of preventing the "stress" of the infant
before birth so that meconium staining is prevented and that an alert baby
clears her own mucous, hence preventing the suctioning. We have to see what
is normal before we can see that anything is wrong with our standard
practices.

It's similar to the '50s and '60s when some people were trying to get the
"mainstream" to see that a baby who wasn't breastfed was at a disadvantage.
Anyone who thought that formula was anything unhealthful "sounded like
fanatics." If those of us who were working hard to change the infant
feeding practices in the US had been assuring the comfort of the
mainstream, little progress would have been made. Can you imagine a group
of women taking on the entire pediatric community in challenging their
assertion that formula is the preferred food for infants?  My Ped called me
selfish for "making" my baby breastfeed. He was solidly mainstream.

But
>we turn people off... big time.... and are dismissed as kooks if we are not
>careful in how we speak to not only others but to one another (especially
>when the list is read by far more people than actually participate...we
>need to remember that this is not a private conversation).

Would *you* want to be on Lactnet if all of our posts were such that
everyone who may be lurking here would be comfortable with and in agreement
with all that we are posting? The only advantage I can see is that it
wouldn't take so long to read a day's posts.

If Lactnet were just for mainstream practices, I would never have heard of
Cranio-Sacral therapies, or Gentian Violet, or mothers breastfeeding after
breast-reduction surgery, or herbs as galatagogues, or allergies as a cause
of FTT, or "Chicken Hair", or Diflucan for intraductal yeast, or the
intelligent use of %iles in growth charts.

My LC practice would be severely handicapped if Lactnetters were not at
ease in sharing their personal and clinical experiences as well as their
"wonderings", and I consider this sharing a vital part of my on-going
education.  I'm just glad that I didn't wait for the AAP to declare that
breastfeeding is the healthiest way to feed my babies.

>There are other MDs that read our posts as well as nurses who are on the
>front line so to speak with these infants.

Which is the reason for us to not keep from them what we are observing and
learning in our practices, as well as how their choices impact those
infants after the short hospital period.

>We loose them when we become
>emotional and make statements without thinking about how they may sound to
>someone not as passionate about breastfeeding.

Lactnet without emotion? LCs without emotion?  How can anyone in health
care not be passionate about breastfeeding, the basic nutrition for an
infant?

>When we make statements like "suctioning is comparable to rape"...many
>health care profesionals just tune out....

One would think that they would, instead, perk up and take notice. Just
think how recently the medical community discovered that infant boys
experience pain with unanesthetised circumcision. When they learned this,
they changed their procedure. Someone (outside the community) had said,
loud and long, that this is traumatic for these infants.

To an infant the mouth is the major center of pleasure, along with skin, so
it behooves us to respect these areas of sensitivity and make sure that we
are not violating them if we can aviod it. We must consider what we may be
doing that would be a violation.

>this means nothing to them...

Really?

>because we come off sounding like fanatics?

A fanatic is someone who feels strongly about something that I don't feel
strongly about.  Do people control their enthusiasm so that no one will
call them "baseball fans" (short for fanatics)? If someone calls me a
breastfeeding fanatic (It's been done.), I just hope that, in time, they
too will become enthusiastic about optimal health of infants.

>some of these people are in a position to help our cause if we present our
>ideas as well thought out, without the emotion, in a way that is usefull to
>their practice.

Lori, I know what you are saying in your post. I'm sure that you don't want
us to become people without emotion or for the list to become sterile.  And
we would all like to be able to write with well-thought-out composition,
fit for publishing. Lactnet is a place where we can improve our writing
style as we create a mix of spontaneity and deliberation and find
satisfying ways to get our opinions understood.

I suspect that the reason that Lactnet is an "uncomfortable place to be"
right now is not that you want us to give up our enthusiasm or to serve our
explorations on a plate of status quo so that it is palatable to anyone who
comes by. You are disturbed by the demeaning, insulting, and inciteful
writing that is going on.  You are ashamed for your colleagues (known and
unknown) to see such behavior. Believe me this is not the usual spirit of
this forum. If it were, I would have unsubscribed long ago.

Hopefully we will soon return to Lactnet, an outstanding educational forum,
and a "friendly place to be."

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA


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