Across the Pondlife

Okay, so current mood is apparent then!!!!!!
I have days when I wonder what I am up against. This morning on the way to school I am called by a lady who is 5 days PP. She is suffering from the after effects of an epidural (swelling everywhere) a 1st degree tear (v.painful!!) and the consequences of the somewhat floppy mouth of what must can only be a lactation consultant from the hospital having a very bad day of sense of judgement. Of course, I can only take her word for it, BUT........
She has been feeding him formula since her return from the hospital and hasn't tried to latch him only to pump........to cut a VERY long rant in half, the "advice" from the hospital was that she was "so determined to feed it would be dangerous for the baby"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&*(*)&((*&$£???? The same consultant (although I am reluctant to call her that) would not answer my client as to what exactly she meant (text book case of foot in mouth syndrome!) and recommended pumping and formula. Her diagnosis was based on the fact that the baby wouldn't latch on.......2 hours after his circumcision surgery (okay don't get me started on that subject!).

Suffice to say, she successfully latched him this morning at 9.30am when I arrived, fed him, found a comfy lying down position AND has aborted the idea to pump for at least 6 weeks.

This is not the first time I have heard this dreadful kind of story. It makes my blood boil. I want to report comments like this. I don't understand what the aim of it is. She is a LACTATION consultant for goodness sake, she is meant to be PRO breastfeeding. If she (my client) hadn't have rung me, she would be exclusively formula feeding now, that sounds really arsey and "what a saviour" I am-ish, that isn't what I mean at all, I just don't know what to do. There needs to be some kind of support (Free if possible or certainly low cost) in place that is genuine, up to date and knowledgeable where women can ring, have someone come around to help without the fear that they can't afford it, the insurance won't cover it, they don't know anyone etc. It happens in the UK with the NCT, although I am not sure that they do home visits anymore. I will get her the contact for the local La Leche league though. If women are told this kind of thing in hospital following a long arduous birth they are naturally going to doubt their ability. This consultant left my client with the understanding that she was not producing milk for her son. True it maybe that her milk supply is not yet established and she may be slower than some for the milk to come it, but meanwhile is producing just what her son needs as long as she feeds him!

So, I am on my way home, fuming, and decide to do my usual........call me tight or frugal but buying snow suits and thick coats for NEXT year in the sale has always been the way I work, saves me loads! I bought I.'s coat and the lady asked me if I had the size up from the one I need as they always come up really small.?!!! So, simple question, if that is common knowledge, why not just make them bigger???????????I don't get it!

I was reading a comment on someone's blog this week about how easy it is when someone has a problem, to feel that problem as one's own. You know, I would love to think that was always true, what a calm and peaceful place the world would be. We would be filled with compassion for each other all the time. Within hours I was reading an article in a magazine about Female Genital Mutilation and the author of the article concluded with saying that how easy people find it to read about issues such as FGM and other disturbing issues and not take on the problem as one's own. The difference tends to be if the situation affects us directly or it is on our own doorstep so to speak. I sometimes feel this conflicted about my job. How far should I go to try and change things? how much can I, one person do? Oddly enough T. is currently reading Gulliver's Travels. Look at how much those tiny Lilliputians did as a team !! Then this evening I got home to an e-mail from a client I taught a week or two ago for a short series, she said:

"....F. (her husband)remembered everything too. He was such a champ. He helped me more than I could imagine anyone could....."

I suppose the answer is that one day we will see the effects of our desire for change, one day, if we work as a team there maybe more miwife infuence, more education for OB's on the holistic model of care, but until that point we will have to continue to plug the holes in the dam, be that drop in the ocean.

Okay, so ramble over, I must go a re-do dinner, yes you read that right, re-do, as the mutt decided that it was his, admittedly R. was late home tonight but that is really taking the p**s.