Good news for health care providers looking to update or deepen their understanding of breastfeeding and lactation.  For the second time in seven years, the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, a publication of the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM)  dedicated an entire issue to these topics (November, 2007).  They are even offering CEUs for completing it. 

As emphasized in the issue’s editorial, how health care providers talk to their patients or clients about breastfeeding can have a big impact on the quality of their breastfeeding experience and whether or not they nurse at all.  “I don’t want to make women feel guilty” is no excuse for not conveying accurate and scientific information.  In fact, women are often upset if they discover they were not given proper advice.

My own research supports this.  Many women have told me that would have nursed if only their health care providers had explained to them that breastmilk and formula are not equivalent choices.  Even more women have told me they wanted to nurse but quit due to inaccurate information or poor advice when they ran into problems.  Perhaps the most regrettable situations, though, are when the advice they were given created the problems in the first place.

Given that many health care providers themselves freely acknowledge the lack of education they received during their medical education and training, accessible resources that provide up-to-date information are vital. 

Full-text articles of this special issue of the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health are available to ACNM members and personal subscribers.  But anyone can access the full table of contents and the abstracts.  And there are two free resources to share with parents:  What to Expect in the Early Days of Breastfeeding and Bringing Your Baby to Breast: Positioning and Latch.  Click the following link for an overview of the whole issue.  http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/jmwh/issues/contents