doctors scarily ignorant about breastfeeding - and I should know, I am one....

[anonymousdr]

Am a lurker and very occasionally post here but have changed my name for the moment - I read mumsnet as a mum, not as a doctor and I like to keep those identities separate.

However, I was just thinking today, there are so many stories here where people were given advice about breastfeeding from GPs and paediatricians, and the advice was basically a pile of poo.

I just want to point out that doctors get NO training about breastfeeding. A doctor's opinion about bf might be well-informed, but it equally might be just a vague collection of old wives tales, things they were told by their hv when they themselves were bf, etc etc etc.

So to anyone who is being told weird things by their GP: stick fingers in ears, say LA LA LA and then go home and read the kellymom site.

And mn of course!

thank you for sharing that piece of wisdom. just as i suspected.

But don't you think GP's should become informed??

Is it just my area, or is it common practice to have regular GP conferences (i think they are monthly in my borough). Could breastfeeding not be on an agenda?

Yes, I agree about not being taught about breastfeeding. I did my training in Romania, many, many years ago. All I remember about infant feeding was that we had to memorise some home-made formula for use when BF fails. I've learnt loads through kellymom and attending LLL meetings.

Message withdrawn

I think I have lost the faith in them in many other things apart of BF...

Yes, my feeling is that doctors shouldn't be dealing with breast feeding - although I admire those who make the effort to educate themselves, that's really good.

Doctors are trained to deal with ill people and imo should stick to that. Breastfeeding isn't an illness any more than pregnancy is.

I think drs should give lots of support and encouragement, but they shouldn't give advice. Instead, they should simply help parents to get get in touch with the people who really know what they're talking about (as per Californifrau's post).

No excuse for HVs and midwives though. This really is central to their job and some of them are unbelievably ignorant. Allegedly.

I agree that doctors shouldn't necessarily know about bf. What they do need do know, is that they don't know about it, and where to signpost new mothers to advice sources where they can get support. As with mw's and hv's, the most dangerous ones are the ones who think they know about bf.

But it would be quite nice if gps did at least have some vague idea about how breastfeeding works - it is a fairly integral aspect of health for a child. A GP I saw when ds was 2 looked stunned to hear he was breastfed and asked if he had any solids at all.

God, Caligula, you are so right! A little knowledge, etc ('knowledge' roughly translating as 'something I once read on a cereal packet...')

The doctors meetings that are held on a monthly basis are usually sponsored by Pharma companies aren't they? And educated Dr's on their drugs, so it will never happen that they get educated in this way re breast feeding as the Pharma company would make no money at all!

Couldn't agree more Caligula. The very worst doctors (in any sphere) are the ones who think they know what they're talking about but actually don't.

But surely the GPs need to know their stuff when women are referred to them when they are in need of a prescription for something breastfeeding related eg antibiotics or thrush treatment? Mine fannyed about looking up a book and phoning the hospital when I needed antibiotics for an infection and I can tell you that it didn't give me a load of confidence.

Mawbroon - better that she phoned around and looked things in a book than just to appear confident but give the wrong prescription.

I see drs' role also to provide advice on health promotion & disease prevention, not just to treat ill people. As BF can reduce illness then training should cover this too.

I once discovered a gem amongst coals: a GP who actually prescribed a thrush cream for my nipples in addition to drops for my daughter's oral thrush. He stated, 'Well of course, she'll just get it back from you if you don't treat your nipples.' I felt like saying, 'Does your wife read mumsnet?'

It was an emergency appointment, alas, so not my usual surgery, but we've now switched to a more progressive surgery - adjuncted to the university - so here's hoping!

I'm convinced my last GP was lobotomised at birth, smoked crack, and bribed someone for a degree. There's no other way someone can be that ignorant and call himself a professional.

'Couldn't agree more Caligula. The very worst doctors (in any sphere) are the ones who think they know what they're talking about but actually don't. '

You must know my former GP, a man who actually wrote me a letter outlining the diseases covered by 5-in-1 jab (only, in his pea-sized mind, it's a 6-in-1)as diptheria . . . haemophilus . . . and influenza B.

I kid you not. I kept the letter to laugh at everytime I feel like a total dumb a**.

Doctors do need to know what the boundaries to their knowledge are and to recognise the normal - I would say that applies to much of their work, actually.

That does include knowing how normal breastfeeding works, so they don't tell mothers that if their babies are feeding more often than four hourly, then their breastmilk cannot be be adequate and to top up.

That's just an example.

Mothers do bring unsettled, miserable babies to the doctor, so the need to know the basics is there.

I would be delighted if they did not sabotage breastfeeding as often as they do - I don't expect much more than that.

Sorry yes, when I said doctors shouldn't necessarily know about bf, I meant the ins and outs of how to support a mother to bf. Of course they should know the basics, like how bf actually works so that they know not to tell women stupid things.

Thank you for the confirmation of my suspicions that helps to explain why I was prescribed two courses of antibiotics when I had ductal thrush.

Twas only third child - I knew nothing compared to male dr of course! Silly me.

Am not being fair - as when I saw another dr at my local practice, armed with print out of Breastfeeding network website on ductal thrush, this (third) doctor sat infront of me and read the material and then prescribed the recommended drug. She is now my dr of choice, not surprisingly.

No extra training needed, just five minutes of her time, the ability to listen and the self confidence to admit that she had no training on the subject.

I think it should be included in GP's training - it is preventative medicine after all and you get two-for-the-price-of-one benefits for baby and mother.

But then I also think GP surgeries should have a resident nutritionist too. Oh, and a resident osteopath might be nice. Let alone a local b/f councellor 'attached' to local surgeries?

There is so much we can do to keep waiting room queues down and wouldn't a bit of knowledge about b/f be a good place to start?

I'll qualify what I wrote earlier by saying that I agree there is a basic level of knowledge - eg recognising the normal as tiktok puts it - which doctors ought to have. But I still think that it's not for drs to offer breastfeeding advice unless they have specific expertise. Breastfeeding is too important to risk being sabotaged by a dabbler.

What I would hope, if I went to my own GP with a bfeeding problem, is that he would be very positive and encouraging, but would immediately put me in touch with the experts rather than trying to fix the problem himself.

It's sad, isn't it, that knowledge of bfeeding in society generally is so poor that people (whether doctors or not) don't even know the basics without being trained.

Without meanign to be rude to doctors, I do feel that they think they cannot admit ignorance or ask for advice. So if you come to them with a problem they are obliged to give you a solution - even if it's a poo-pooing. It's incredibly rare for a dr to say "I don't know, but I know someone who does."

I agree that what I would like to hear from my dr, regarding bfing, would be reassurance and the phone number of a bfc. OTOH, I would like drs to know a bit more about things like mastitis and thrush. Fortunately, the one time I had incipient mastitis I saw a dr who had 3 breastfed children of his own! And he was reasonable enough to listen to and take seriously the advice regarding combing etc that I had received on Mumsnet. From another dr I have had cream for thrush, but not only no prescription for the baby, but a refusal to give me one until we had evidence that the baby had reinfected me. And of course it turned out not to be thrush at all (thank you HV, at least you knew what you were talking about). I suppose in that case he was right not to prescribe for the baby, but if he was so sure that it was thrush...?

I am quite surprised that anyone would go to there GP for BF advice as I would not expect them to have the specialist knowledge. They are human at the end of the day and can't know everything about everything. I actually feel the role of a GP is very difficult as the public expectation of them is very high.

I wouldn't go for bf advice, but then I've been on Mumsnet, and even before discovering M I had done my research and learned of the NCT, LLL, ABM etc. But I'm sure there are many mums who would go to their gp first. Tehy, particularly, are the ones who need the gp to redirect them rather than to muck them up. Besides, for illnesses like mastitis and thrush you need to go to the gp.

Yes I accept that you would need to go for anything that would need drug therapy but I wouldn't use my GP for support. I just wouldn't expect him or her to have the specialist knowledge.