Thank you, Dr. Jen, You are a credit to your profession, as many of us have said. IMO, one of the most important things which can change physician attitudes and education about breastfeeding is Medical School Lactation courses. I do not know the number of med schools which offer lactation classes, but a few years ago about 10 med schools (out of, what 150 or so schools in the US, if I am correct, my numbers may be off) offered Lactation classes, and in NONE of these schools was it required. Not for peds,ped specialties, OBGYNS, Fam Pracs or anyone else. A lactation course should be required for specialties which see a large number of women of childbearing age, IMO. I approached a local medical school with a plan for Lactation course a few years ago and got no response. This is a medical school I respect, because many of the doctors I have worked with, from the school and hospital, as a patient and as an LC have good knowlege of breastfeeding, but most of them claim it was all self learned or learned from LCs and nurses in the field. (My own OB told me when he was in med school there was only one paragraph in one of his OB books about BF, it read "Breastfeeding is best for both the mother and the newborn. Encourage your patients to breastfeed." That was it, no implementation strategies, no details, no explaination of "best" ect. He refers to LCs regularly, because in his words "They know a heck of a lot more about it than I do." His brother is a Neo and is infamous for "forcing" mothers of preterm and other Neo patients to pump and then breastfeed! He is, as far as I know, also self taught.) We need more docs like this, those who either know BF or know when to refer, and aren't afraid to refer when neccesary. Education of med schools students is essensial to breastfeeding success. I have seen more and more clients of late who have doctors who are more than happy to defer BF situations to myself and other LCs, who trust my weighing more than their "slidey scale's" weights, who tell moms to talk to me, who are happy to accept recommendations for treatment for things like mastitis and thrush from myself and other LCs, who will order tests for things like thyroid. Things are changing, but all of these doctors have self motivation about BF, and I think "getting them while they are young," and still in med school may be one key. Does anyone know what is being done to make inroads to medical schools to teach lactation? Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLLL, AAPL Private Practice *********************************************** 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(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html