One of the worst experiences a mother lives with her child is the time when, for whatever reason, she should be given A blood test. It is a time when you have to immobilize the baby's arm, you must also control your body so that it can be punctured and so that it is not harmed and you have to know that if everything goes well it can be a hard, but fast experience, and that if not everything goes to the first it may take a little longer.
As it is such a distressing moment, it is worth doing everything possible to ensure that the baby or child has the best possible time, or the least, and one of the options that mothers and professionals have, and that little is still used , is the "Tetanalgesia". In this incredible photo you have a clear example of this "technique", a photo that was awarded in the annual contest of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) last year and which we will talk about next.
What is "Tetanalgesia"
"Tetanalgesia" it is a colloquial term that is used to describe the calming effect of breastfeeding on children. There are already several studies that have compared the effect with other strategies and it has been concluded that it works, that calms children when something worries or hurts them, with an effect similar to that obtained if you give them something candy.
Whatever is done to them will also hurt, be careful, there is nothing magical about this world, but between breastfeeding and not doing so there is an obvious, documented difference that makes it advisable for mothers, thinking of their children , breastfeed the baby when something has to be done that hurts: an analytical, a vaccine, etc.
The humanity of professionals who care for children
The photo was winning, probably because of the unusualness of what we see in the image. As we read in Sant Feliu - Breastfeeding and more, it was performed by the pediatric professionals of the Els Monjos Primary Care Team in Alt Penedès, in Catalonia. Given the situation of having to do a blood test on a 14-month-old baby, the adults present (professionals and mother) decided to do everything possible to help the interested party. They allowed both of them to lie down, to unite through the breast, for the baby to suck, suck, and that while Mom told him and did little things, the professionals would draw blood. Hurt? Surely it hurt a lot, he probably cried, but at least he knew accompanied and protected.
This is what is expected of professionals who care for children: commitment, dedication and update, because sometimes it is not a matter of not wanting, but of not knowing that breastfed babies can use the resource "tit" to carry it better. On other occasions, unfortunately, it is a no want, which is what I lived a few years ago in a primary care center in my city when they systematically let the child through the door but not the parents "because yes you are more nervous ", thus violating, in a way, one of the Rights of the Hospitalized Child that says that the child has the right "To be accompanied by their parents or the person who replaces them as long as possible during their stay in the hospital, without impeding the application of the necessary treatments for the child". That is true, we are not talking about a hospital, but it is still an invasive and painful test and in such a situation the most logical thing is to seek greater comfort and accompaniment, and not the opposite situation, that in which they take advantage of a child's fear and dread who suddenly stays with strangers who not only take him away from his parents, but also hurt him.
That's why the photo is so wonderful, because surely hundreds, what do I say hundreds ... thousands of mothers, will see it and they will feel envious, for not having done something like that the day their babies had to draw blood.
