Jean brings up a very cogent point re: the effect of unresolved grief on
health care professionals' support of breastfeeding.

WHen I speak to nurses or doulas, I often talk about resolving one's own
experience first, before we get into the education about breastfeeding.
A lot of pain can pour out of women who have not been helped and
supported to realize their breastfeeding dreams.  Once that pain is out
there, validated by others, it can be set aside a little and allow
learning without cognitive dissonance.

Too often the HCP's who give bf "lip service" but undermine it at every
opportunity are acting out their own unresolved grief.  As LC's, we need
to be kind to ourselves the same way we are kind to our clients.  Some
of us did not know enough to reach our own bf goals when we were new
mothers, some of us did not get the support to do so, the knowledge of
how to rescue a breastfeeding crisis was not there for others of us.  I
imagine that many of us would do at least some things differently if we
had life to live over, knowing what we now know.  Making peace is an
important part of living, intrapersonally, and interpersonally.

--
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC  New York City  mailto:[log in to unmask]

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