I have to agree with Deb McAllister's general approach in her reasons to breastfeed. I think if LC's get too "militant" in our push to encourage brastfeeding, we are going to turn many off and maybe do more harm than good in the long run for the general public. I would rather have people hear what I say (and maybe decide to breastfeed or continue to breastfeed longer than they originally planned) than get turned off by my approach and risk not nursing at all. One of my home visits this morning was a follow up visit to a young woman who I took care of both in the hospital and as a follow up VNA referral. She is breastfeeding for the first time and is doing very well. As is often the case with many young mothers, in the hospital she insisted on giving the baby formula after breastfeeding because she was sure the baby was hungry. No amount of encouragement or teaching from me or other nurses was going to convince her otherwise. She told me early on that she would nurse more at home when her milk came in. I was glad to get the referral because I was hoping to follow her. I have seen her twice over the course of another week now and today was my second home visit. When I saw her at home last week, the baby was nursing very well and I went through the usual drill about how to watch the baby's cues, feed frequently, etc., and continued to encourage her because the baby was doing a great job even early on. Today, I went back for a follow up visit and although she told me that the baby is still nursing frequently and very well (I observed another feeding this visit also), I could see those little formula bottles and nipples all washed at the sink.When I questioned her about the reasons she felt she needed to use formula, she had no valid reasons at all. That's just what she is wanting to do. As usual, no amount of teaching is going to change her mindset. She is going to do what she wants and that's that. My point is that I would rather see her nurse the way she is(because that's what she is going to do)for a length of time than to have her decide to stop altogether, because she feels she is not meeting my expectation. OUr patients ofetn follow our leads as we all know. We as LC's can only do so much and if we make a big deal out of everything and present ourselves in a militant fashion, we're just going to turn more people off. Someone questioned my relaxed approach at the local Babies R Us, because I said I didn't worry too much about what they serve for food or give for freebees. First of all, there are no formula ads anywhere in relation to the breastfeeding seminar where I am and secondly, I am a GUEST in their store. I would rather continue to be asked back to speak (and probably reach a lot of people as I always do) than to offend the people running the store and risk losing the audience completely. Why should I get upset that they are handing out those sample Avent breastmilk storage containers? I am just happy that they would be encouraging mothers to be storing their milk for whan they go back to work. Isn't it better that they are pumping and feeding their milk than giving up those feedings and substituting formula? I truly think we need to lighten up a bit and stop trying to reach everyone and do the best we can to support those who have any level of interest in or commitment to breastfeeding and/or want to learn. Successful mothers will spread the word far better than we will. We are a part of this, not the whole thing. Betsy Riedel ENC, IBCLC *********************************************** 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