Dear Friends: I am horrifically underpaid to make home visits to new mothers and babies for an agency. After travel time, paperwork, and the actual visit, I earn about $10/hour. For 30 years experience and a Masters' degree, that isn't much; a plumber or a hired clown for a birthday party. But the work pays in dollars of the heart. I love showing up on day 4-5, and being in the right place at the right time to help breastfeeding. And I love meeting mothers from other countries. Today, I met a woman from Liberia who has a constant stream of female relatives coming to her house. They sleep over. They clean her house. They cook food for everyone. They bathe her, and massage her. They watch her other children. Her job is just to breastfeed this new baby. They will do this for a month. I wish every new mother could have such community/family support. 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