Content of the Conference
The conference, titled “Role of the Dice: Ethical Awareness while Providing Breastfeeding Support”, was the first of its kind in addressing ethical, moral, and legal challenges of breastfeeding in clinical care. The presentations were done by Liz Brooks, who is a practicing lawyer by profession and is currently hired by Drexel University to teach in the Human Lactation Program. Her biographic information also demonstrates that she “currently serves on the Boards of United States Breastfeeding Committee and the Human Milk Banking Association of North America.” Brooks is an established author by virtue of having written a book on IBCLC ethics and law and making scholarly contributions in other published manuscripts. The main topics that were presented in the conference include “dazed and confused after discharge”, “the WHO code in everyday practice”, “human milk sharing”, “selling and donation”, “avoiding IBCLC legal and ethical jeopardy”, and “what is too friendly for an IBCLC on social media.”
Implications
The conference served to demonstrate that healthcare providers should be centered on awareness creation and education. Liz Brooks concentrated on education and bringing issues of breastfeeding ethics and law to light. After childbirth, numerous new mothers are being released from hospitals without proper training and assets. A significant proportion of new mothers are often confronted with confusing situations on breastfeeding, hence turn to nourish the newborns with formula products. The conference touched on the benefits of breastfeeding and providing proper education and support for new mothers to encourage breast milk nourishment. The benefits of breastfeeding to new mothers and their children are far greater than formula products, particularly in terms of providing the newborns with antibodies to fight infections, decreasing the risk of developing chronic conditions, and facilitating better postpartum healing for the mother.
Relevance of Problems and Needed Changes
The conference touched on what new mothers experience in the wake of being released from the healing center during the post-pregnancy period. One of the problems discussed in the conference relates to how new mothers are released from healthcare facilities with little information on the most proficient method to legitimately breastfeed their newborns. Although new mothers get some lactation counseling at the clinic, they do not have any support to deal with arising issues in the home environment. For example, they are not adequately counseled on issues relating to proper breastfeeding techniques, inadequate milk production, newborn health problems, and incapacity of the newborn to breastfeed by chewing on the nipple instead of sucking the areola. All these are normal issues that confront new mothers when they are released from the hospital.
Likewise, the conference touched on delicate moral matters such as human milk sharing, milk selling, offering, and gifting. Most customary morals do not allow the selling or offering of body parts. Owing to the fact that human milk is viewed in many states as a body part or tissue, its sale or sharing is despised and looked down upon due to the existing value systems. However, from the conference, it was clear that human milk can be sold in the business domain to replace formula products that are often harmful to the health of the child due to poor preparation techniques. Research demonstrates that breastfeeding is able to accomplish the ideal well-being for the mother and her newborn (Haider, Chang, Bulton, Gold, & Olson, 2014). Overall, the conference underscored the need for nursing professionals to recognize the unique issues affecting new mothers and also to educate them on the benefits of breastfeeding. It is important for healthcare workers to raise awareness on breastfeeding, support new mothers, and provide education on the most appropriate method of breastfeeding (Haider et al., 2014).
Learning Experiences
Although the conference did not provide clear and comprehensive responses to the problems presented, it was effective in demonstrating the centrality of healthcare providers in providing meaningful data and information to new mothers to enable them to make informed decisions. The conference was exceptionally knowledgeable and provided useful insights on what lactation counsels experience and manage on a daily basis. Additionally, the conference provided some awareness on the issues new mothers experience after they are released from the healthcare facility. Owing to the fact that my only introduction to new mothers was in my OB Clinical in nursing school, it is correct to argue that this conference taught me a great deal by providing the knowledge on the boundaries new mothers need to confront when breastfeeding. The knowledge that I internalized from this conference will help me to not only understand the challenges faced by new mothers but also to set clear objectives and make informed decisions that will be instrumental in optimizing care delivery in this group of the population. Lastly, the conference helped me to develop a great appreciation of lactation consultants and counsels.
Reference
Haider, S.J., Chang, L.V., Bulton, T.A., Gold, J.G., & Olson, B.A. (2014). An evaluation of the effects of breastfeeding support program on health outcomes. Health Services Research, 49(6), 2017-2013.
