I opened our local paper The Current in Westfield yesterday to find a new article attacking lactation consultants. I was very upset by this, as were many of my local friends. I decided to write a letter in response and sent it to the columnist as well as the editors. Since it probably won’t be shared in the paper, I wanted to share it here. I think these are important things that need to be said again and again and again!
The Current article
Dear Mrs. Wilson-
I am certain that my letter will not be the only one you receive in response to your opinion column in the October 23, 2012 edition of the Current, “Formula a savior in nursing situations”. I do hope that you will take the time to read my thoughts and consider my points.
First of all, I am very sorry that your sister had a bad experience with nursing her child and with her healthcare provider. I am also very sorry to hear that you had a painful and negative experience with nursing.
I feel very saddened when I hear about such failures in our systems. That’s right. I did not and will not call you, your sister, nor your efforts a failure. Unfortunately that is something that so many people don’t understand. The great majority of people in the lactation field DON’T see mothers as failures when they give up due to pain, exhaustion, or any other reasons, or even when they just choose not to breastfeed. We don’t judge them. Instead, we see the glaring failures in the systems that should be supporting these women or the lack of systems all together. For example, in your sister’s situation, there are many points in her experience when the system failed her and your niece. One obvious one is the lack of a trained and accredited International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC)1 on staff at her pediatrician’s office. The majority of pediatricians are under trained in breastfeeding.2 Which is quite sad considering how important infant feeding and nutrition is to the health of a baby. If every pediatric office had an IBCLC on staff no mother would have to drive 40 minutes to get support and no mother would be told to supplement immediately if there were a problem. This is a very serious break in the system that must be fixed. We have to help mothers understand that they deserve more and their children deserve more. We would never tolerate such a gap in quality care in any other aspect of our children’s health, why do we ignore this?
I also don’t understand why lactation professionals seem to be held in a different regard than other health professionals. If you were to see a cardiologist who, very gruffly or arrogantly or with no sensitivity, told you that you needed to start eating better and working out or else you were going to have a heart attack, you would not write off the field of cardiology, deem all cardiologists to be arrogant and pushy, or completely dismiss the advice she was giving just because you were upset by her bedside manner. You would say that she was a horrible doctor and find another. So why, when you have a negative experience with the bedside manner of a lactation consultant, do you wrap them all up into one group and declare them in the hot seat? These women are healthcare professionals just like your doctor. Some will have a bedside manner which fits with you, some will not. However, it does not make sense to write off their knowledge and advice simply because they don’t approach it as you would prefer. I also feel it is important to remember that these women are working with mothers at a very difficult time. The mother is often dealing with her own feelings of vulnerability, guilt, judgement, frustration, fatigue. All of that can seriously impede their receptiveness to help and support. IBCLCs are trained in working through this, but again it is vital that the mother feel comfortable with her provider’s approach and personality, just like with her own doctor.
And finally, it is important to note that there are few other health professions where the credentialing and training of the provider is so misunderstood. There are LCs, CLCs, IBCLCs, LCEs, etc. Each is trained and certified in some way, but each differ greatly. It is important for mothers to research and select their lactation support provider in the same way that they would select a pediatrician. They need to know what credentials the person has, what those credentials mean, and what types of services and support to expect. It is time we stop looking at lactation support as just a bunch of women who are out there to force you to breastfeed your baby at all costs. It isn’t accurate, it isn’t fair, and it does a great disservice to the mothers, babies, and these healthcare professionals.
We have a long way to go as a country, but I believe that one day every mother will feel supported in her decision to breastfeed, no matter how long that is for. For more information about lactation support in Hamilton County, please visit the Breastfeeding Coalition of Hamilton County (http://breastfeedhamilton.org
Sincerely-
Crystal Gold, MS
Chair, Indiana State Breastfeeding Coalition
Member, Breastfeeding Coalition of Hamilton County
1.http://www.ilca.org/i4a/
2.http://www.bestforbabes.org/
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