I have been Nomail for about 18 months (my, time flies!) and thought it'd be
polite to post a quick re-introduction. I have been Nomail for so long, that
I'm not even going to try to go to the archives and do any serious
"catch-up" - it has taken me the better part of 2 hours just to read the
collection of postings for "January 2002 Week 4" and I didn't but scan most
of them. Glad to see that Lactnet is as healthy - and verbal!! - as ever.
I have been busy finishing my Master's degree in Nursing (MSN) as a Clinical
Nurse Specialist in Maternal-Child Healthcare. Yes, there is life after
graduate school- I think... I finally completed my thesis and had an
unchallenged defense I am happy to say. My thesis topic changed 3 times
before I settled on doing a qualitative grounded theory study (using N-VIVO)
of "Perinatal experiences of women in a rural California county." My first
topic, "Breastfeeding toddlers" was deemed unacceptable, not by my thesis
chair and committee (who finally believed me that this was a viable topic),
but by the rest of the faculty who were not maternal-child nurses, granted,
but, well...I won't have to explain it to fellow Lactnetters! Now that the
thesis is completed, I plan to continue where I left off with the shelved
toddler study (I'm looking to interview additional mothers. Study
requirements are: presently breastfeeding a baby between 18 and 36 months of
age and has never been a member of the LLL or other lactation support group.
<== the last may be challenged as a confounding variable in the results; I
am not opposed to support groups in the least).
I have been doing lactation consulting in private practice, in home health,
and in the hospital (primarily NICUs but also some peds/PICUs) since 1985. I
was IBCLC in 1985 but have since let it lapse (tuition being what it is at a
private university, I had to make choices). I have special interests in the
grower-feeder premie, amongst other areas of lactation support (most of
which I've posted about on Lactnet). Since working on my graduate degree, I
have been an "unlisted" LC (with plenty of calls nonetheless).
I also have a Master's degree in Public Health from UCLA in the community
delivery of services to women and children with an emphasis on infant
survival, i.e. breastfeeding. I was fortunate to study human lactation with
the late Dr. Jelliffe and received the marvelous guidance of Mrs. Jelliffe
as my advisor for that degree. For the MPH, I did a federal health policy
analysis internship in Washington, DC, where my analysis piece on "WIC's
Mixed Message" (about bfing and provision of free formula) was published by
the Family Research Center in 1991.
For the last 2 years, I have been hanging around audiologists and working in
the rollout of the California Newborn Hearing Screening Program.
I'm happy to be back in the "midst" of the Best Discussion List *I've* ever
been part of!!
Katharine West, MPH, MSN, RN
Sherman Oaks, CA
***********************************************
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
|
