I would like to know how you other lactnetters deal with difficult moms and other staff who acuse you of "pushing breastfeeding." I work as an OTR in the NICU helping babies learn to feed, help the moms learn to breastfeed whenever I can, and when I see a mom bottle feeding a baby expressed breast milk, I tell her that the sooner the baby goes directly on the breast, the sooner s/he will learn to breastfeed, even if they are not doing well on the bottle, that it is not necessary to wait until they do well on the bottle, etc, etc. And then I suggest that they ask their MD for an order to let the baby try to breastfeed. (In this unit, I sometimes think the baby needs an order even to stool.) I just heard that a mom I worked with last week (Class A diabetic mom, baby born at 30 weeks, saw him at 32 weeks, poor tone, semi-alert,) who was bottle feeding EBM complained that I "bamboozeled" her into breastfeeding and was "pushing" her into breastfeeding before she was ready! This is a very difficult mom anyway, and unfortunately, she complained long and loud, and this went very high up in the hospital. Unfortunately, I think this is Patient Satisfaction Week at the hospital. Very bad timing. She is still bottle feeding EBM but told me she does not want to breastfeed, and I have been told to not talk to her at all. I try always to be polite and tactful and encouraging and educational at the same time. I know these moms are stressed out. But now I am being cautioned NOT to "push moms into breastfeeding"! Am I wrong to assume that if a mom is bottle feeding EBM that she wants to breastfeed? How else can I know if I don't ask her? And why do I need to look pushy for trying to educate about something so important? It is very important for these premies to get on the breast as soon as possible. So why do I have to apologize for suggesting this? I am REALLYfuming- And the NURSES all agreed that I was being "insensitive to the mom". Thanks for letting me let off steam- on the one hand I hope I don't get fired, but on the other hand this lets me see just how un-breastfeeding friendly this envoronment really is. And I had thought that I was getting somewhere with this staff..... Debbie Rabin, OTR, CLC Los Angeles, CA