In a message dated 5/17/01 10:07:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << I've heard a number of women over the years say "I hadn't intended to breastfeed, but the baby was born early (or with a problem) and the neonatologist told me I HAD TO, so I did." >> Kathy, I agree. My NICU experience was brief and 31 yrs ago (fresh out of Nursing school), so I remember nothing but formula feeding via gavage for premies, and it was rare to see BFing moms with their term infants; so hats off to those of you who work today in such stressful, high-tech NICU's where infants are so much more fragile than those little ones I ever saw. I recently had the pleasure and honor to hear Paula Meier speak at a conference; of course, she was fantastic! I learned so much but overall what I will never forget and hope to always apply to my private practice clientele was her amazing empowerment of mothers and respect for their ability to provide their infants with their milk, without question of whether they could, it was just an expectation. Two things especially relevant to this discussion, I believe: at Rush the neonatologist says to mom (my understanding was this occurred shortly after birth) "we need your milk as medicine for your baby for the first week and after that breastmilk is more of a food." (They are referring to expression of colostrum and breastmilk and my quote may not be 100% accurate) This, Paula said, is how they have a 100% initiation rate of early breastmilk feeding. The other vital message I took home from this conference was the empowerment of mothers and their need for education and scientific information so that they understand why breastmilk is so important for their babies; Paula referred over and over again the importance of "bringing science to the bedside." She stated that "bringing breastmilk to their babies was the only tangible hold these moms have on their babies" (when so fragile in beginning); also, that "the times Mothers feel guilty about not BFing is when they don't have information." Needless to say, I was impressed with the presentation by Paula and learned so much, scientifically, as well. But the single most important (to me, at least) "fact" was the need to empower women, respect their capacity for knowledge and information, and as iIlove doing, to work in partnership with them. Wish all NICU's could have a presentation by Dr. Meier, just as I wish every hosp had a milk bank and a Barbara Wilson Clay, etc, etc....there is so much to learn. Barbara Latterner, BSN, RN, IBCLC Brewster, NY *********************************************** 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