Jun 4

“…I Can’t Come Down Here Every Time Someone Wants To Nurse.”

“Quit bothering me. I work on the 4th floor postpartum. I can’t come down here every time someone wants to nurse.” – Lactation Consultant to NICU Nurse.

109 people dislike these words.

There are 33 comments to this post.

brittanypb had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 7:03 pm (Quote)

it’s. your. job.

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Kristin Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 9:58 pm Kristin(Quote)

EXACTLY!!!
You should be especially concerned for NICU babies because they have a tougher time for crying out loud!

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Jena had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 7:07 pm (Quote)

I would suggest heading down to HR and talking to them about whether they need to hire a new LC… either to help or replace you, your choice. Or maybe you just need to review your job description.

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Ann S Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 7:10 pm Ann S(Quote)

Well said!

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Aly K Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 7:13 pm Aly K(Quote)

I agree. Both NICUs my son was in had a dedicated LC there.

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Jane Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 7:16 pm Jane(Quote)

Win.

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Amber (Firewife) had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 7:18 pm (Quote)

“If that’s the case, then you should have stopped at your very first word: QUIT.”

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Kat had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 7:26 pm (Quote)

Right, so only the healthy babies deserve attention. The ones whose very lives hang in the balance, and who may live or die based on the colostrum and breastmilk they get can just work it out for themselves.

Disgusting.

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Lindsey had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 8:20 pm (Quote)

I found out on the day we were leaving the NICU that the “Lactation Consultant” that continually pressured me to give my hypoglycemic son formula “because it is impossible for a babies sugar to get within normal range without formula” had only taken a 2 hour online course. As a layperson I had already taken 2 20 hour WHO lactation management courses… I had more education than the hospitals sorry excuse for an LC.

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Louisa Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 10:03 pm Louisa(Quote)

wow, just WOW!!

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Megan Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 10:52 pm Megan(Quote)

after struggling with breastfeeding with my son, i joined the LLL and educated myself with breastfeeding tips, topics, techniques, different types of nipples, different types of milk, all of it i could! the LC consultant started coming to my room to talk to me about breastfeeding and new techiniques she didnt know.

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Megan Reply:
June 4th, 2011 at 11:03 pm Megan(Quote)

*after my second delivery i mean

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Heather Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm Heather(Quote)

Whoa! Where’s that course? Sign me up! I already know way more than that LC, I want an easy title!

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Sheva had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 10:20 pm (Quote)

Wow, this is nuts!
But not unusual… A hospital employee who doesn’t want to do their JOB.
No disrespect intended to all the excellent nurses and doctors out there.

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Sigrid Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 6:40 am Sigrid(Quote)

I’m not an LC, but I work with them as a newborn/NICU nurse. They are VERY busy. Our lactation department only has 1 full time LC and two part time LCs right now. We only have lactation coverage on the day shifts. They have had LC positions posted for about a year– there just aren’t enough qualified (lactation certified) people in our area. So… the ONE LC that is at the hospital at any given time has to meet with every postpartum mother and work with NICU moms… that can be a 1:30 ratio… and if you want any kind of DECENT care, she needs to spend a good deal of time with you. Usually, the LCs have one good session with each mom/baby and then defer to the nurses to assist the rest of the time. After all… they are CONSULTANTS to be consulted in trouble situations, not to be around every time a mom wants to nurse.

NICU nurses at most have a 1:3 assignment. We, as nurses, need to help moms with breastfeeding for the most part and only call in the consultants when a problem arises out of our experience.

The lactation certification exam is very difficult and very expensive and the LCs have to keep up to date with continued education credits (CEUs) that can also be very expensive. The hospital reimburses part of this cost, but it is all initially out of pocket. Also… LCs are not considered to have a “clinical” position, and so make less money than staff nurses. This is why its tough to get nurses to become LCs.

PLEASE don’t assume that hospital employees are lazy. This poor lactation consultant was probably physically incapable of working with those NICU moms at the time. That does not mean that she hasn’t seen them at some point to get them set up/answer any questions that they had, etc… It just means that the NICU nurse needs to go from there.

By the way… LCs have a backbreaking job. Ever try to assist with breastfeeding all day long? Leaning over to observe latch kills your back. It’s a pretty thankless job.

Honestly… we work our butts off to give the very best care that we can. We are NOT LAZY people!!!! ::sigh::

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Amber (Firewife) Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 6:57 am Amber (Firewife)(Quote)

You do make some valid points. However, the offense in this situation is not so much (what could be) a true lack of staffing and demands of a busy job. The offense is actually the LC’s rude statement. Being busy is NO excuse for rudeness. It really does not matter whether the mom was requesting the LC’s help at every single feeding in the NICU, or it it was multiple moms requesting the LC’s help in the NICU, or only one mom who requested the LC’s assistance in the NICU only one time. If going to the NICU to assist is part of her job (which seems obvious to me since the quote was not “that’s not my job”), then she needs to quit complaining and just go do it!

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laura grace Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 12:59 pm laura grace(Quote)

“We are NOT LAZY”

You’re clearly not. You’re clearly passionate and dedicated. No one is saying that LCs have an easy job, or that most of them are sitting on their butts in the nurses’ station eating Doritos and watching soaps. Probably this LC was rushed off her feet just like most employees in most understaffed hospitals.

But as Amber and others have said, it is NEVER, EVER, EVER ok for someone to tell a patient, “Quit bothering me.” It is absolutely OK for her to say, “Hey, mama, I’ve got 18 nursing dyads I’m looking after right now on a couple of floors, so I promise I will check in on you as often as I possibly can, but I probably can’t come down every time you need to nurse. Can I answer some questions for you right now? If it’s something basic, one of the shift nurses might be able to help you too!”

But again, there is no excuse for this kind of blatant rudeness.

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Heather Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 1:30 pm Heather(Quote)

Go read the OP. The LC was trying to refuse to help the NICU mom AT ALL.

Just because one hospital has a great staff doesn’t mean another does. I had wonderful, amazing, knowledgeable nurses at my first birth that actually saved me from bad advice from the LC (who works several area hospitals). However, other area hospitals have nursing staff with no clue how to help a mom learn to nurse. And not all LCs are created equal (or educated to the same degree).

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Sheva Reply:
June 6th, 2011 at 2:47 pm Sheva(Quote)

I am not assuming that all hospital employees are lazy. Many of them are wonderful (the two nurses we had last night are an excellent example). But I do know that some of them are very lazy. I’ve met some of both. I’ve also met some good doulas and some lazy ones.
This LC had no excuse for the way she spoke. None. I attended a birth last night – 20 hours – on 4 hours of sleep from the night before. I left 4 kids and a husband at home. And I wasn’t rude once. Because being there was my job, I love my job, and even though sometimes it’s not an easy one, I’m happy to be there. If this woman doesn’t like her job or feels overworked, the person to complain to is not the mother she is supposed to be serving.

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Sigrid Reply:
June 7th, 2011 at 5:08 am Sigrid(Quote)

Ladies– read the post: it says her comment was directed at a NICU nurse, not at the patient.

And.. the OP comment was not up when I posted.

I just thought it was ridiculous how so many people all of a sudden jumped on the LC’s comment as being “so rude” and that she “should be fired.” From what was posted, it didn’t seem that bad… until, of course, the OP clarified. But seriously… everyone is SO INCREDIBLY HOSTILE on this site! Are we any better than the hospital employees that we bash?

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Sheva Reply:
June 7th, 2011 at 5:14 am Sheva(Quote)

Yes, because we are not rude to them to their faces. We just vent about it here, among other women who have ‘been there, done that’ or people who are sensitive to women who have.
And it’s not hostility, it’s expressions of pain and anger at how we were treated.

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Amber (Firewife) Reply:
June 7th, 2011 at 6:07 am Amber (Firewife)(Quote)

I’m not sure if I’m one of the “Ladies” that you were speaking to, but since I was further up in this line of posts, I will assume so.

The OP was not up when I posted either.

I did not say that she was speaking to a patient.

I stated exactly what I thought about this LC speaking to the NICU nurse: it was rude, and if she doesn’t want to do her job, then she should find a new job. Personally, I did not say she should be fired (although, if rudeness to coworkers and/or not wanting to do her job are persistent problems, then maybe she does need to be).

My initial reaction was that it was rude, and I read it over and over again trying to figure out any tone of voice that this LC could have said that for it to not be rude. I couldn’t think of one.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can say that we are not ALL hostile because I am not. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt at first.

I can say unequivocally that yes, I am better than the hospital employees that I personally have said something about – because I do not intentionally lied to people, I do not give gross misinformation (because if I don’t know something to be verifiable fact, I tell them and do the research before I speak), and I have never performed some procedure that inflicted harm and/or pain on someone else, and (as in this case) when I had coworkers I was not rude to them. I don’t think I’m all that great, but I do know that I have never done any of the things that I have spoken out about/against on this site.

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Jessica had this to say, Jun 4, 2011 @ 11:34 pm (Quote)

Sounds like the office needs to be relocated. Or the hospital needs a LC that can tap the elevator buttons when she’s summoned for help.

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Jane Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 5:15 am Jane(Quote)

That’s a good point: why is NICU located so far from postpartum that the LC might die of exhaustion walking between them? Isn’t that even tougher for postpartum moms who want to see their babies?

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Amber (Firewife) Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 5:39 am Amber (Firewife)(Quote)

“Oh, wait. You mean postpartum moms actually WANT to see their babies? I figured they would be happy to just leave them in the NICU and get some rest!”
Obviously the words that would be uttered by the hospital planners and administrators if they were faced with this issue.

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Jane Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 6:07 am Jane(Quote)

Do you think the pediatricians complain too? “Oh, I can’t believe I have to see babies in postpartum AND in NICU! I’ll just see the ones in postpartum because I can’t just come down to NICU every time someone wants to deliver a baby that needs extra help.”

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Amber (Firewife) Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 6:22 am Amber (Firewife)(Quote)

Oh, I’m sure that complaint is made, too. Most hospital administrators are doctors, as I understand it. How sad that we gave Western doctors this “God-Complex” and allowed it to get this far out of hand.

My experience with Russian doctors was quite the opposite – they have never had the status and salary of American doctors (it is equivalent to that of a teacher or firefighter here in America). There are nowhere near as many doctors flooding the market in Russia as in Western culture, but yet they still do not have a “God-Complex.” Maybe on this one thing, Western doctors should take some lessons from the Russians!

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Lisa Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 6:38 pm Lisa(Quote)

Psh, when my son was born, the NICU wasn’t even in the same BUILDING as the postpartum ward. I got to see my son on closed-captioned TV until I was able to get the medical shuttle over to the other hospital.

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Bonnie Carroll had this to say, Jun 5, 2011 @ 10:31 am (Quote)

I hope that B#%* was fired.

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Jen had this to say, Jun 5, 2011 @ 12:10 pm (Quote)

This was mine. My first baby was in the NICU as a “grower”, having been born at 35+2 with no problems other than being small for gestational age. The neonatologist wouldn’t allow me to nurse until my DD was 5 days old, and by that time she had a flow preference and nipple confusion. The NICU nurses paged the LC off and on all morning with no response. After lunch one great nurse started paging her every 5 minutes for an hour. She finally stormed in after the 13th page furious that she had to come down to the NICU. The nurse told her off for her attitude, and she finally agreed to “help” me. She spent less than a minute trying to help my baby latch, then gave me a nipple shield because “she’s expecting a plastic nipple” and left. It took me 6 weeks to teach my baby to nurse, but we eventually got it down. I’m now a peer BF educator and working toward becoming a doula.

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StaudtCJ Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 1:25 pm StaudtCJ(Quote)

I’m glad you and your little one finally managed to have a successful BF relationship, despite this supposed LC. I hope you reported this person to the hospital. I also hope that this LC didn’t try to charge you a consult fee for the couple seconds she spent not looking at your actual problem.

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Amber (Firewife) Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 5:54 pm Amber (Firewife)(Quote)

You know what my favorite part about this comment was? The fact that you are now a peer BF educator and working toward becoming a doula. Personally, I think the best “revenge” is to put people like that out of a job by doing better than them!

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