Dianne writes:
"I am feeling very down about the world of breastfeeding support....
I am amazed at the negativity and feeling like I am, once again, fighting a
huge uphill battle against the "establishment" - and I know breastfeeding
is
best - why can't we all agree????"

Dianne,  You did a great thing by opening up the lines of discussion on
that "other" list.  I apologize for the rudeness of some of my colleagues -
as with most subjects, those who have the most thought out questions/points
for discussion are the ones that don't need to SHOUT  or name call but can
discuss things in a quiet, comfortable exchange of information.

Try to look at this  from a Green Eggs & Ham (hereafter GE&H) perspective.
If you've ever seen some of the things Dr. Seuss drew you know that they
look mighty err...strange.  Now if some body asked you to eat GE&H - would
you?  I pondered that question myself and decided - maybe.  IF it was
somebody I knew and really trusted asking me to try GE&H,  well, I'd try
it.  Or if all the other people were eating GE&H, I'd possibly try it then.
But If it were someone I didn't know well asking me to do it, and I didn't
know anyone else trying it - I doubt it.

Why not? Because I don't know enough about GE&H.  I need a lot of really
good reasons to do something different when I already have something to eat
 - and besides society doesn't support the consumption of these "green"
foods, yes there's that one book about Sam, I am... but still the other
books have "non-green" food...... you get my drift, I'm sure.

The other side of this issue is "who do you know?".  Docs in practice are
very busy. Many people vie for their time - drug reps and formula reps
included.  I spent 10 years in sales (8 of them teaching sales) before
going to med school and let me tell you that the formula reps  that I have
met are absolutely the best salespeople I've come across (they put the drug
reps to shame, honestly, they do) They are absolutely the "nicest people"
to deal with - the kind of guys and gals that you'd love to have as a next
door neighbor because I'm sure they'd mow your lawn for you and let you use
their pool as well.
These people visit every week or so, are pleasant, always have a compliment
or a nice word to say, bring samples, goodies and information about XYorZ
and never say anything negative.  And they are even nice to people you'd
have trouble tolerating sitting next to at lunch.

So, regarding physicians, "who do they know better?"  Unless they have
close contact with an LC, or have a lot of other physicians in their circle
actively supporting breastfeeding --- its not us.  And if their contact
with the breastfeeding community has been less than complimentary, well we
can kiss those GE&H goodbye at least for now, 'cause we're not going win
anyone's cooperation.

You're going to say "but GE&H is better"!  Go back to the second paragraph.
 As I've written before "It doesn't matter what you know nearly as much as
it matters what you can convince others of" (dangling participle and all).


So what can we do? I'm not suggesting we dress up in three piece suits and
hand out pens - someone is already doing that.  I'm suggesting that we
continue to raise ourselves to the level of "professionals" in the eyes of
those we are working with.  This includes being as courteous as the formula
reps 1. In what we are saying ABOUT the Health Care Professionals that we
are working with and 2. What we say TO the HCPs themselves.  The other key
is good, clear, concise documentation.  It educates the reader, tells them
what you did, and is very important from a legal standpoint.  Professional
Consultants Communicate Professionally.

Dianne, the "less loud" people from the other list are asking good
questions, don't let the shouters (LGMFM) get you down.

Time to serve up some more GE&H!!!

Gail
Gail Hertz, MD, IBCLC
Pediatric Resident
author of the little green breastfeeding book - disclaimer: owner of Pocket
Publications