The most helpful thing a physician (pediatrician) can do to promote, encourage and/or support breastfeeding is to ask mothers how breastfeeding is going for mom, sore nipples, baby latching well, staying awake during feeds, and so on. If mom tells her pediatrician she's having trouble, then the pediatrician should have referral sources available and have mom call from the office so pedi knows help is available and that mom has followed through. The few pediatricians I know who do this often save breastfeeding and prevent use of formula. The most detrimental thing a physician can do is to ignore signs of breastfeeding difficulties and just instruct formula supplementation without even considering supplementing with mom's own milk, nor referring mom to lactation specialist. An example from my private practice, young, first time mother who states to pedi that her baby can't latch so she's pumping and feeding him by bottle and baby's doc just says ok, end of conversation. It was her mother-in-law who nursed 11 children that got her help. Best of luck, Kelly, and hope you hear from many others. Your time is limited so you really need to make your words count. A very salient point which relates to above is to help pediatricians realize (don't get me wrong, many do already) that it is a dyad they are working with, not just the infant. If one has problems, so will the other. Barbara Latterner, BSN, RN, 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 email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html