It's 2010 People!!

I can't recall if I've mentioned, on here, that I volunteer helping breastfeeding moms when I'm supposed to be cooking dinner in my spare time. I may only get one or two calls a month. Unless, that month has a major holiday or I have just given birth. Then my phone will ring nonstop and I'll have to order my children not to answer any number they don't recognize. (Please don't think I'm horrible, its just that it took twice as long to convince Hank that its bedtime than it did to write this paragraph. And I can hear he still doesn't believe me ;) Goldie blessed me by going to bed at 8, which means she'll wake up screaming any second. See, I need every minute in my day.)

Yesterday I decided to answer a call that I had already ignored once. Well, I must have taken too long navigating the farm animals and Zhu Zhu pets because I missed it again. So, I did what I never do, and called this unknown person to see what they needed.

It was indeed a breastfeeding help call. A grandmother calling for her daughter. She began describing a baby that, although full term, had medical complications and was transported to a NICU in a larger city. She seemed unsure of what to tell me or where to even begin. The mother had an emergency c-section and the nurses had refused to show her how to pump or get a lactation consultant to see her. That's when my DS mommy radar went up.

Me "I hope you don't mind me asking, but does the baby have a suspected diagnosis. Its unusual for a mother to not receive help after several requests."

Baby's Grandma "Well, yes he does."

Me "Its okay, I understand, I have a daughter with Down syndrome"

BG "Oh, that's what they think he has. You really do understand. I'm so glad I called you."

Do you get what happened to her daughter? The nurses decided that because her baby has DS "he won't be able to breastfeed anyway" or "it won't matter". Then again maybe they were too busy feeling sorry for her and didn't want to "burden" her with pumping for her baby. This story is very familiar to me. I have a friend who experienced the same thing almost 4 years ago when her daughter was born. It was a different hospital in a different state, but the same attitudes. That talk a friend and I gave last year, we need to keep giving it.