Re: Do we scare women with all the advice?
I always try and be hands of with breastfeeding too, and if i do have to put hands on, its usually hand on the baby and the woman can maneouvre the breast herself. The only time where it mayb be different is post section, like above, when they cannot move overly well. Although yesterday there was a baby that wouldn't feed and hadn't fed properly for over 16 hours, i advised the mum re hand expression and she began doing it but wasn't too successful, i was all happy to leave her until she got the hang of it, but my mentor came in and said- 'we need to get the baby fed- can you help her get the milk off?' so to my shame i ended up 'milking' her. which i felt very ashamed of, maybe i should have ignored my mentor?
I do feel bad that i wasn't 'hands off' but i did gain consent, and after that she got the hang of expression, and then actual feeding.
I tink sometimes we do 'over-advise' and maybe should spend more time just sitting and listening and chatting, but on a p/n ward, when you've got 6 more women and 20 other jobs to do, or d/s, where you've got a pile of birth notes and another labouring woman on the way, when do we have time to do this?
ooops bit off topic, sorry!
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"With my hands, i have felt the strength it takes to grow, and release new spirit......."
"All the best births are the ones where you only have time to record times on a paper towel..."- a midwife, somewhere in the middle
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