Let me take the opportunity to invite any of you nearly burned out LCs to
come visit some of our better NICUs in Norway.  Giving baby mother's milk is
the standard of care.  Some places do better than others, of course, but I
just inspected a hospital not far from me for baby-friendliness this week,
and was quite impressed with the BF support.

One mother interviewed while pregnant was asked 'What kind of BF experience
did you have with your first child?'
'Very good', she said.  I was getting ready to suggest that she might want
to get some info on BFing preemies as she is at risk for premature birth
now.  Before I got that far she informed me almost incidentally that her
first baby was born at about 33-34 weeks.  She had no perception of having
done something extraordinary in fully breastfeeding that baby, nor of it
being a crisis when she was unable to express any milk at all the first four
days and the baby got banked human milk.  That was refreshing!

In the NICU the nurse on duty grudgingly let us in, but flat out refused to
let us talk to one mother because of all she had been through that day.  I
agreed completely with her judgment on that.  Then she walked over to their
bulletin board and took down a snapshot of triplets.  'We know how to
support BFing.  These ones were born at 28 weeks and went home fully
breastfed.'  The head nurse told us the next day, 'We don't even ask about
their feeding plans.  We assume they will breastfeed and take it from
there.'

These units compare themselves to the relatively baby-friendly maternity
units and often find themselves wanting.  I am sure it would be a lift for
them as well as for any of you, who want to come and see what it looks like
in practice.  You can tell them about treatment and care in NEC, and we can
tell you what life is like without it!

Ten years ago we were just barely starting this stuff, though we did have
the advantage of a stable breastfeeding culture to start from.  But it has
been a concerted effort on the parts of pediatricians, nurses and mothers,
not necessarily in that order, to get us where we are today.

About to start a rest-and-rehabilitation travel service for LCs from the US,
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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