Week 2

Our Second week of BEST has come and gone. The meeting went well. We watched a dvd that is basically an intro to breastfeeding. It was probably made at 4 or 5 years ago, yet the teens were convinced that it must be ancient. One girl asked me "miss, how old is this movie??"
There were a couple of new residents who hadn't been to our first meeting. Several girls who were there last week seemed to be happy to see us again. Also, the same resident who asked last week if she could restart breastfeeding after stopping for 2 days has continued to breastfeed! She is using both bottle and breastmilk and it is working well for her.
I was particularly happy to see more UTHSCSA faculty and students at this meeting. We had Dr. Berggren, Dr. Berggren's mom, a 4th yr medical student, and two 1st year medical students in attendance in addition to Miranda and I.
Overall the meeting was a nice casual conversation atmosphere and it allowed for some of the girls who are currently breastfeeding to share their personal experience with others who are pregnant.
This week, over thanksgiving break, I will be in Austin. I am using this opportunity to shadow my mother who is a lactation consultant for WIC in Austin, and I am also attempting to schedule a time to shadow a family educator who visits new moms in the hospital to encourage them to breastfeed. I am hoping to synthesize what I learn in these visits into a guide for students involved in the BEST project.
Now that we have consent forms set up for visiting the teens in the hospital, we just need to get them signed by the teens' parents/guardians. Soon we will have all the branches of the BEST program in place!