Let me get this straight.
Because *some* women *might* use this product without personal professional guidance, the paraphenalia to aid/help with breastfeeding problems should be denied to all women who don't have contact with aforementioned breastfeeding professionals.
This is supposed to improve things how?
I am all for cups, syringes, syringe attachments, SNSes and all things of that nature being freely available. Why? Because not everyone can afford a frikkin' lactation consultant (or they may not have ready bus access the way that many Target stores do). Not everyone can spare the time for an extra appointment. Not everyone has access to a professional. Perhaps the one they DO have access to is a real jerk. (Happened to me once or twice in the hospital with the twins, luckily I was able to blow her off because I knew what I was doing. I would not have wanted her to earn any extra $$ from me!)
Seems to me this IS a trust issue. The weight being thrown to professionals disturbs me. If someone is reasonable well-educated about breastfeeding, then they know that nipple shields are not to be used lightly. That is screamed ad nauseum in just about every breastfeeding book I've ever read. So, my first thought would be that women who buy the things at Target *must have a reason to do so* and it's not because they're stupid or uninformed.
Target sells pacifiers, johnny-jump-ups, swings, bouncy chairs, and infant bucket seats too, which some might equivocate to child abuse/severe impediments to bonding. Yet there's no high moral outrage that they'll sell them there! Seems to me the outrage should be directed towards Medela, not Target. But you know, Medela is in it to make a buck too. Maybe they want to cut out the middleman, I dunno.
For the record, I've never had to use any breastfeeding aid, even though they were pushed at me with the boys. I ignored the LC's sage advice and tossed the toys into the garbage. We did just fine. I'm lucky, my kids have all been born knowing how to nurse and nursing easily--and the "professional" advice I was given could have really screwed it up for us. Therefore, I can easily see things happening the other way, where an LC is dead set against the use of those tools and is dead wrong too.
Therefore, I'd want free access. That way if I get someone who puts their vision of how things should be above listening to me even if it goes against they typical way of doing things, I can still get what I need when I need it. Medela's good about providing nice inserts, I don't see why they couldn't just do the same thing in the shield packaging and call it good.
Because *some* women *might* use this product without personal professional guidance, the paraphenalia to aid/help with breastfeeding problems should be denied to all women who don't have contact with aforementioned breastfeeding professionals.
This is supposed to improve things how?
I am all for cups, syringes, syringe attachments, SNSes and all things of that nature being freely available. Why? Because not everyone can afford a frikkin' lactation consultant (or they may not have ready bus access the way that many Target stores do). Not everyone can spare the time for an extra appointment. Not everyone has access to a professional. Perhaps the one they DO have access to is a real jerk. (Happened to me once or twice in the hospital with the twins, luckily I was able to blow her off because I knew what I was doing. I would not have wanted her to earn any extra $$ from me!)
Seems to me this IS a trust issue. The weight being thrown to professionals disturbs me. If someone is reasonable well-educated about breastfeeding, then they know that nipple shields are not to be used lightly. That is screamed ad nauseum in just about every breastfeeding book I've ever read. So, my first thought would be that women who buy the things at Target *must have a reason to do so* and it's not because they're stupid or uninformed.
Target sells pacifiers, johnny-jump-ups, swings, bouncy chairs, and infant bucket seats too, which some might equivocate to child abuse/severe impediments to bonding. Yet there's no high moral outrage that they'll sell them there! Seems to me the outrage should be directed towards Medela, not Target. But you know, Medela is in it to make a buck too. Maybe they want to cut out the middleman, I dunno.
For the record, I've never had to use any breastfeeding aid, even though they were pushed at me with the boys. I ignored the LC's sage advice and tossed the toys into the garbage. We did just fine. I'm lucky, my kids have all been born knowing how to nurse and nursing easily--and the "professional" advice I was given could have really screwed it up for us. Therefore, I can easily see things happening the other way, where an LC is dead set against the use of those tools and is dead wrong too.
Therefore, I'd want free access. That way if I get someone who puts their vision of how things should be above listening to me even if it goes against they typical way of doing things, I can still get what I need when I need it. Medela's good about providing nice inserts, I don't see why they couldn't just do the same thing in the shield packaging and call it good.
