Midwife Takes a Stand
by Barbara Dehn - 13th June 2008
I recently read about Clare Byam-Cook, a retired midwife from the UK, who spent the past 20 years helping thousands of women, including celebrities such as Kate Winslet and Helena Bonham Carter , to breastfeed. But while a major proponent of the 'breast is best' message, she believes that some midwives are now so dogmatic about it, that they refuse to recognize when mothers are struggling, with serious consequences for the baby. She also stated that "if a baby can't or won't get enough milk out of the breast to be satisfied, it's better to give formula in a bottle than for the baby to end up dehydrated because of underfeeding."
This is a scenario that I see played out often and is what I believe contributes to real distress in women’s lives. I have a friend, who is a labor and delivery nurse, whose milk never came in with her first child. She was so determined to breastfeed that her child did become dehydrated and didn’t gain enough weight. It was a scary situation that could have been a lot worse, if the baby hadn’t been given formula. My friend had helped countless other moms breastfeed and felt before her own challenging experience that using formula was wrong. After she herself found that breastfeeding her first child didn’t work out, her ideas about what was “best” changed, and she found herself becoming an advocate for finding the best option for that unique mother and child.
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