Dear Friends: My deepest sympathy to Pamela and the mother of the tongue-tied baby. I wish this mother had had the energy to stand up and make a scene in the MD's office. (The one that said the tongue tie wasn't severe enough to clip because the baby will grow out of it. Meanwhile mom's nipples are like aching hamburger.) I wish the mother had raged and yelled at the MD, and said something like, "Look at my nipples, they are damaged because my baby can't latch well. My baby deserves and needs to be breastfed, and why are you ignoring the seriousness of this situation?!" I wish this mother had had a doula or some advocate or some family member with her to fight for her, because she doesn't have the energy to fight, having been in pain and worked so hard since the baby was born. When, oh when, will the US take breastfeeding seriously? Even the ad campaign seems like high-class lip service to me. "Sure, babies are born to be breastfed, but we sure as hell won't help you." Talk about inducing guilt!! How do mothers feel when they act on a health promotion message and don't get help? I feel an exploding sense of helpless outrage everytime I hear or am part of a case such as the one Pamela described. I see it in the hospital where I am a relief LC all the time: "Your baby has to eat, you don't have enough milk because your milk hasn't come in yet, so give a bottle." And even more outrageous: "Your baby is sick (or has jaundice or is premature), so stop giving the best food in the world and give bottles of this inferior stuff." Sometimes I feel like giving up. I am outnumbered. For every breastfeeding advocate or wonderful case where the mother and the baby get it together despite all odds, there are 100+ cases of healthcare practitioner ignorance and poor practice. I HATE feeling on the loosing side. I need truth to prevail. warmly, Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative *********************************************** 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