Who Are You Gonna Call?

Peer support has become wildly popular and unfortunately terribly unreliable. We used to share wisdom and understand what we expressed to others, but in a fast paced world run by tiktoks, view counts, and credibility based on followers not evidence, we've fallen short to say the least. A newly postpartum mom is exhausted and overwhelmed so she takes to Facebook. Rather than using it as a safe place to vent, air out her grievances, and gain wisdom in what to do, she's met with the latest fads. Majority of the fads are not safe or effective, but she unknowingly rushes off to buy whatever food, drink, or pill “fixes” someone else's breastfeeding journey. We've gotten it backwards. As a community we should be encouraging each other with educational information, facts not feelings, and most importantly pointing that person to a trained professional. We don't tell a toddler to just try sticking a fork in an electrical socket, so why would we hand a mom a slice of cheesecake and a broken pump and then tell her to figure it out? It may seem like an overexaggerated extreme, but when we take into account that a helpless baby is relying on being fed and nurtured, this can become a very grave scenario. Malnourished babies have been at the hands of whatever another mom swears by all while the baby really needed medical attention and the parents needed support and education. Rather than sharing opinions, let's share professionals; don't risk someone's journey and possibly a life. Provide support and wisdom in who to call. Struggling to feed your baby? Call an IBCLC. Baby has a fever over 100? Call the pediatrician or doctor on call. Mom is suddenly bleeding heavily? Call the OB or midwife. If you have a near and dear family expecting a baby soon, I'd encourage you to look into some form of gift card or fund for services on their behalf. Introduce them to an IBCLC, get them a list of pediatricians to interview, offer a PP doula to help with things, or even hire a cleaning service for them for a time! These are things that a village can do for the family of a new baby. That is what a village looks like - not a cookie here and pink drink there. We've all fallen into that rut, but let's move forward and do better. ❤️