Is there anything I can do to help?

One of Allyson's mom's coworkers had a baby last night. She
doesn't speak a word of English, and none of the nurses
speak a word of Chinese. So instead of trying to convey
"Your baby is hungry and you should try to bf," they just
gave the baby formula. Never mind that she *wants* to bf (I
asked a few weeks before the baby was born).

We're going to go visit her tonight in the hospital, and see
if we can get her started. I'm taking Caterpillar and 2
Boppy pillows. Any other ideas of stuff to take or try,
bearing in mind that everything will either need to be a
demonstration or go through at least one layer of translation?

Phoebe

--
yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...
One of Allyson's mom's coworkers had a baby last night. She
doesn't speak a word of English, and none of the nurses
speak a word of Chinese. So instead of trying to convey
"Your baby is hungry and you should try to bf," they just
gave the baby formula. Never mind that she *wants* to bf (I
asked a few weeks before the baby was born).

We're going to go visit her tonight in the hospital, and see
if we can get her started. I'm taking Caterpillar and 2
Boppy pillows. Any other ideas of stuff to take or try,
bearing in mind that everything will either need to be a
demonstration or go through at least one layer of translation?

Phoebe

--
yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt


you can go to a free translator online (just do a quick web search and
you should find about four million of them LOL) type her a quick
letter explaining that you'd like to help and print it up and bring it
to her when you visit. Then ask the hospital for a translator, they
should have to find one for her.

Jen

Phoebe & Allyson wrote:

One of Allyson's mom's coworkers had a baby last night. She doesn't
speak a word of English, and none of the nurses speak a word of
Chinese. So instead of trying to convey "Your baby is hungry and you
should try to bf," they just gave the baby formula. Never mind that she
*wants* to bf (I asked a few weeks before the baby was born).

=:-0
Welcome to your new country...would you like celiacs or allergies with
that baby? sarcasm/


We're going to go visit her tonight in the hospital, and see if we can
get her started. I'm taking Caterpillar and 2 Boppy pillows. Any other
ideas of stuff to take or try, bearing in mind that everything will
either need to be a demonstration or go through at least one layer of
translation?


Books on nursing with pictures?
A kid's picture dictionary?
A clock so that you can explain the intervals of nursing and duration of
feeds?
Someone who speaks Mandarin or Cantonese and has bfed? ;-)

Seriously....NONE of the nurses speak Mandarin/Cantonese??? Locally,
the hospitals will page for a speaker of X over the PA system, so that a
staff member can come to help out...there's enough diversity that
usually SOMEone speaks a language. I was just at the RE today and the
list of languages was about a half dozen or so.....(don't as ME what
they all were...they were written in the language/alphabet :-) )

Dawn

badgirl wrote:

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...

One of Allyson's mom's coworkers had a baby last night. She
doesn't speak a word of English, and none of the nurses
speak a word of Chinese.


you can go to a free translator online (just do a quick web search and
you should find about four million of them LOL) type her a quick
letter explaining that you'd like to help and print it up and bring it
to her when you visit.

Don't expect it to be overly clear from that, though.....they always
come out...well, like a second language translated by a machine ;-)

Phoebe...forgot to say GOOD ON YOU, for going and making an
effort...maybe you can shame the nurses into being more bl@@dy use.

Maybe take THEM some LLL handouts or something....

Oooo, anyone in your local LLL that speaks her language??

Dawn

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...
One of Allyson's mom's coworkers had a baby last night. She
doesn't speak a word of English, and none of the nurses
speak a word of Chinese. So instead of trying to convey
"Your baby is hungry and you should try to bf," they just
gave the baby formula. Never mind that she *wants* to bf (I
asked a few weeks before the baby was born).

We're going to go visit her tonight in the hospital, and see
if we can get her started. I'm taking Caterpillar and 2
Boppy pillows. Any other ideas of stuff to take or try,
bearing in mind that everything will either need to be a
demonstration or go through at least one layer of translation?

Phoebe

--
yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt


My best friend is Chinese and her parents don't speak a word of English, but
I manage to communicate with them okay. You may be surprised how much you
can get across.

Try to feed your baby while you are there. Also I would ring LLL and see if
they have any pamphlets videos etc in Cantonese. What you really need is a
person who has or is BFding who speaks Cantonese themselves, don't know
where you'd find one though! Sorry not much help.

Good luck though and hopefully you will find communication easier than you
think :-)

Judy

Phoebe & Allyson wrote:
No good deed goes unpunished. :P


Sigh. Sounds like she had an excuse for everything. But good for you guys
for trying to help.

--
iphigenia
www.tristyn.net
"i have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
i do not think that they will sing to me."

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...
No good deed goes unpunished. :P

Does Mom want to try to bf?
"I can't sit up the way you are, because I'm sore." So we
explain that you can nurse lying down or reclining.
Then she decided she was too shy to feed the baby in front
of anyone. Then Dad went and got a bottle of formula from
the nurses.

Oh, well.

Phoebe

--
yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt


Well good on you anyway Phoebe for giving it a really good try.
Amanda

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...
Does Mom want to try to bf?
"I can't sit up the way you are, because I'm sore." So we
explain that you can nurse lying down or reclining.
Then she decided she was too shy to feed the baby in front
of anyone. Then Dad went and got a bottle of formula from
the nurses.

Oh, well.

Phoebe

Good try, Phoebe. I just went through that with a family member. Even after
explaining one day pp that it was NORMAL for her milk to not be in, she
decided that she just wasn't going to have milk and that was that.
--
JennP.

mom to Matthew 10/11/00
remove "no........spam" to reply

iphigenia wrote:

Sounds like she had an excuse for everything.

Exactly. I think she wants to bf the same way I want a
million dollars - it would be great if it magically
happened, but we're not willing to make the choices and
sacrifices that would make it happen.

I remember back when Caterpillar was very young (I don't
remember if it was in the horrible first two weeks or the
slightly less miserable first 6 weeks), someone here posted
that bf was a commitment. And I, not capable of committing
to more than the current feeding, was really bothered by
that comment. But from where I am now, I think whoever it
was was right. If you don't really, really want to bf, it's
so much easier not to, at least in the early days and weeks.

Phoebe
--
yahoo address is unread - substitute mailbolt

"JennP" wrote,

Good try, Phoebe. I just went through that with a family member. Even after
explaining one day pp that it was NORMAL for her milk to not be in, she
decided that she just wasn't going to have milk and that was that.

And you can bet that she will spend the rest of her life, whenever the subject
comes up, explaining that she *wanted* to breastfeed but she just *couldn't*
because she didn't have any milk.

@@

Mary Ellen
William (8)
Matthew (6)
Margaret (2)