"It's clear that many women attempt breast-feeding but give it up. Federal surveys find that about 60 percent of infants in this country are ever breast-fed, well below the target of 75 percent set by public health officials. Yet only 30 percent of those babies are breast-fed for at least three months. Reasons often include problems the baby has learning to nurse, the mother's difficulties producing milk, discomfort for the mother, and inconveniences when the mother goes back to work outside the home. "Part of the issue, according to Sargent and the Tennessee researchers, is the difficulty getting lactation counseling once mothers leave the hospital. A study in Effective Clinical Practice surveyed more than 5,000 new mothers who were enrolled in managed care health plans and found that only 1 percent of the women were given breast-feeding assistance after the birth." http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-dyn/health/A42342-2000Jun12.html That is EXACTLY the point! Moms need help when they go home - moms need telephone assistance, home visits and support! Let's not talk about "the mother's guilt"! Let's talk about society's failure to support these moms! Today I went to see a mom of a 5 day old baby - she bf in the hospital, during engorgement she found it difficult to get baby to latch on, so she stopped on Sunday. Today our PHN called her - she said she was doing fine, she was formula feeding. Instead of taking that as an answer, the PHN went one step further - "When you were pregnant, did you want to breastfeed?" she asked. "Oh yes, I even went to the WIC breastfeeding classes and learned about it - I bought an Evenflow pump, but it didn't get any milk out, and as the baby is under 5 lbs, I didn't dare let her go hungry!" We were there at 4:00 pm, baby was tongue thrusting - no luck on either nipple, baby very upset (100 degrees here today), constipated thanks to the formula . We used a nipple shield, baby nursed 2 ounces (I have a Baby Weigh Scale) and fell quietly to sleep after giving one big, poopy diaper! Mom is very pleased, we will visit her tomorrow and plan to stop the use of the nipple shield by Friday, after baby gets used to opening wide and lowering the tongue. This mom WOULD have felt guilty about not breastfeeding - but it would have been the lack of support that had failed her, not her desire to breastfeed! Jeanette Panchula, RN, IBCLC Vacaville, CA *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html