This is a good news bulletin. When I got to work this morning I discovered that of the 8 mothers I and one maternity care assistant would be looking after, there was *one* who was not known to be having difficulty with BF. Most were sore, some had had bad experiences the first time around and were afraid of repetitions, and one had inverted nipples so baby was unable to latch. The two other groups' mothers were only slightly better. So I offered to have a special group session on avoiding/correcting soreness through positioning, even though it was Saturday and we usually only have group teaching 3 weekdays/week. Luckily everyone else thought it sounded like a fine idea, and one of the MCAs asked if they could sit in, time permitting. Any of you who are alone at your workplaces in your one-track passion for breastfeeding and all things lactational will know why I was thrilled at the thought that they were even interested. Of course they were welcome, and as it turned out all three of the MCAs came, as did about half the mothers and babies on the ward. (It didn't hurt that the MCAs were three members of my Dream Team for postpartum staff, but even so - a lot of times if we have 30 minutes with no call bells, staff just sit in our station and chat, esp. on weekends.) I handed out information to the mothers on evaluating latch which I have translated from what Winnie Mading sent me last year, even though it is really meant for staff - thanks again, Winnie! Using my teddy bear and cloth breast we reviewed asymmetrical latch and cross-cradle hold, I talked up skin-to-skin as the first thing to try for pretty much any BF problem, and there were a few questions. For the rest of the day, the MCAs kept coming to me and saying 'Jane Doe just tried again, and she undressed the baby, I helped her a little to get a good position, and she had no pain! IT WORKED!' They were at least as charged as the mothers were, perhaps more, because they know they will have many more opportunities to use this stuff. Two of them have been working there for over 20 years, and the third is a new grad, and they all felt they learned useful things today, even though the basic principles are very familiar. I think there is hope that skin-to-skin will become an automatic first choice once there is a critical mass of staff who see the effects of it. The effect on mothers never ceases to impress me. They just sort of melt, and enter that protected zone where all there is, is the baby and them, together. If you still haven't had the chance to try it, you have something wonderful to look forward to. There were some other nice moments with individual mothers, too complicated to go into here, but all in all it was an exceptionally satisfying day. May all of you become as visible to your workmates in a positive way, even if only for half an hour! cheers Rachel Myr Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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