Jean, thanks for raising this issue, and thank you Marsha for posting the
Benoit reference.

"It makes me wonder about the subsequent feeding problems we
see with babies who had their head crammed onto the breast, fingers poked
into their mouth, and bottles or pacifiers shoved into a closed mouth...."

Rough handling is unfortunately common here, too, and we are seeing the
problems you describe.  A midwife will often tell us with pride "I got the
baby to latch", meanwhile the mother is distressed, and *she* can't latch
the baby herself.  And we (LCs) often can't  either because we refuse to use
rough
tactics with an already traumatised mother and baby.  It takes time to help
the baby realise that the breast is actually a great place to be, but very
often "time" is not something people want to invest.

Does anybody have any ideas about how to really get across the hands-off,
gentle approach when
dealing with breastfeeding dyads?  Besides, off course starting with the
baby in the right place (habitat) immediately after birth and leaving him
there to "do his own thing" i.e. breastfeed!

Jean Ridler  RN  RM  IBCLC  Cape Town  [log in to unmask]

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