Choices that Affect Breastfeeding

As I was preparing for a meeting last month, I decided that I wanted to focus on childbirth and breastfeeding. My goal was to list as many obstetric interventions as possible and then discuss how each and every one could directly or indirectly influence the initiation and duration of breastfeeding. At the top of the list was MIDWIFE or DOCTOR. We discussed how important it is for the caregiver's philosophy of birth to match our own. We also talked about the difference between seeing birth and breastfeeding as normal life events, and seeing birth as an illness, and breastfeeding as fraught with complications. PREP, SHAVE, and ENEMA were next on my list. The important one here is the...