Esther Grunis, in Israel, must be currently off LN, as she has posted about having to do nearly ALL her instruction by getting 30 mothers together each day she is there. While I don't have the kind of evidence Heather would like to see, I can add my experience from 30 years ago when physicians asked the powers that be (were!) to assign someone to help educate the OB staff nurses. At the time, I was a staff nurse who also did the large-group CBE for the hospital. They wanted us to move from traditional OB care into the then-emerging trend of perinatal medicine. (At the "dawn" when they were researching about cold stress, hypoglycemia, brown fat, SGA, LGA, etc. This was just before they purchased the hospital's first labor monitors, bilirubin lights, etc.) I was given a new title, treated to a 3 week course at the University of Colorado, and set loose on the unit, but without a specific job description. In other words, I was given carte blanch as to when, how and whom I wanted to teach as long as I gave OB staff inservices. I took the ball and ran with it! In the 7 years I kept the job, besides doing all the CBE and much inpatient education, I eventually accomplished training all L&D nurses to scrub for emergency CS in DR, orientation for new maternity personnel, and 6 general inservices each year, round the clock, on all sorts of things, and lots more. Mothers stayed 2-4 days or more at that time. I set aside mornings for mothers, and did all my staff education at other times. I started with baby bath classes 2 days a week, (Tuesday and Thursday) because at that point in history, though bathing was supposed to be taught individually at the bedside, it wasn't getting done for many mothers. The maternity staff welcomed it, as they perceived that it lightened their load, since all they had to do was inform the mothers of the time and help them wheel the cribs to the mothers lounge. I think that got the staff on my side and hid my ulterior motive. I started out making rounds on the breastfeeding mothers. Pretty soon, in order to see the most mothers, I began adding a "Nursing Mother's Circle" at the same time slot on alternate days. (Sneaky. . Monday, Wednesday and Friday gave that class an extra day!) I especially encouraged multiparas to come, assuring them they could be of great help with the first time nursing mothers, and of course, babies too. Often, there was breastfeeding going on, but feelings and individual mother's comfort levels set the tone. The groups of course varied in size, sometimes up to a dozen, but usually 6-8. I played it by ear, finding out who the experienced mothers were, drawing out questions, observations, experiences etc. and worked in topics centered on what that particular group wanted to know. Many times, I had to deflect advice, old wive's tales, etc. on which we had since gained better insights, but even the experienced mothers seemed to welcome new info. This was a voluntary gathering, but nearly always well-attended. The general time frame was to have the mothers there by 10 a. m. and out by 11, unless one or more wanted to linger. Occasionally, one or two had to leave early, due to a doctor making rounds. It proved to be very workable, at least for me, in that I was able to contact so many more mothers that way, saving time at the bedside for more individualized instruction where needed. This gave a chance for much reassurance, providing info on contacting support groups after discharge, plus imparting some of what I personally felt were helpful things to know. That was back before the semantics of "latch". My words for it were "a good grasp." Small potatoes next to Esther's experiences. I'll see if I can get her to chime in on this thread. Jean **************************** K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC Dayton, Ohio USA *********************************************** 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