A minefield of etiquette and/or decency? Public breast feeding

[bonyk]

There may be useful lactation consultants out there, but my experience with about 10 of them in two different cities has been that they have a VERY "driven" agenda, and that if things aren't working it's somehow your fault for not wanting/not trying enough.

Mine made fun of me bc I couldn't get DD to latch.  Never mind that none of the nursing staff could get her on either; I just wasn't trying and didn't want it enough.  I still get mad thinking about it

[EllenS]

The lc in the hospital after I delivered dd1 did not do me much good, since I didn't know enough to ask questions.  I had problems and got a private consult, and that lactation consultant was awesome.. Awesome.  Actually taught me how to supplement with formula and then wean the baby back onto breastmilk as my supply improved.

The hospital-based one I had the second time around was very thorough...but of course by then I had nursed dd1 for 15 months and knew the ropes.

I'm so sorry to hear folks have had bad experiences with lc's...what a shame.

[VorFemme]

With DD, I had been reading about it and she latched on first thing.  With DS (almost ten years later), I had 12 or 13 months experience, even if it had been over nine years earlier.  He figured things out in minutes....never saw hide nor hair of a "lactation consultant" although one nurse wandered through to see how we were doing......no glasses on, couldn't see if she was the consultant or not (couldn't see her name tag) but the slurping noises apparently gave her all the information that she needed to know.

DD had trouble with DGS latching on, the "lactation consultant" at that hospital was more of an "anti-lactation consultant" (telling a mother of four that she's doing it wrong won't win recruits for the local La Leche League).  DD pumped for weeks (he was early) until Grandma VorFemme ended up acting as doula and lactation consultant.  DGS was a very enthusiastic eater, once he figured things out.  Not that he'd ever turned down a bottle of pumped milk - he just like FRESH milk so much better!  Not to mention less waiting for it to be warmed up......

Still is - he just likes solid food now - and give him the whole (small) apple, please, he doesn't want to wait for it to be sliced up!

[fountainof]

I had the nurse write "over-confident" on the BFing report kept in my hospital room.  I was kind of peeved but I had a doula who was really supportive and I was sure that I could try and give BFing my best go and if it didn't work out, it didn't work out.  I wasn't about to make myself crazy over it all.  I hadn't wanted the nurse's help because I had a doula and wanted to do it myseld so she was probably peeved with me thinking I could be sucessful without her "training".

[Ticia]

As far as the etiquette of the original post, I think we've exhausted the subject. Thank you all for participating with civility and not turning this thread into a fight.

However, now that the thread has turned into a discussion on lactation consultants and such, I think it is really not about etiquette anymore.