Dear Friends:
    $.02 more on this.
    In the USA, people don't ask for help. It isn't the cultural norm. We are
supposed to take care of everything ourselves, especially if we are women.
What happens when we do call? How many of us have gotten a return phone call
from a care provider when we called for help? How many of us encounter a
telephone menu when we do call? I have even heard of suicide hot-lines with a
phone menu!
    More and more women are leaving the hospital traumatized from a
technologically managed birth; they leave with injured babies who are in
survival mode. When one is vulnerable, there is a tendency to hide, to
retreat, lick one's wounds and heal.
    Doesn't anyone find it odd that women are expected to reach out and ask
for help when they are at their most vulnerable? Every woman who gives birth,
whether it be to a premature infant or a term baby, live or dead, needs and
deserves follow-up support. Telephone can be sufficient. We are the care
providers, the ones who ostensibly know what she needs and have the strength
to reach out to her and lend a steadying hand to her.
    Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI
craniosacral therapy practitioner; childbirth educator
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporting the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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