Meet the Physician: Dr. David Bramm

VB: Tell us about yourself.
Dr. Bramm: I grew up in Huntsville and graduated from Huntsville High in 1970. I did my premed at the University of Tennessee. I went to Medical School and did my internship in Mobile at USA; then I did a family practice residency in Huntsville. After internship I spent six years in a little town in south Mississippi as a general practitioner. It was emotionally very satisfying…a great experience. Here people may want you; there, they needed you. My wife calls that my “Save the World” phase.

VB: Why did you choose family practice?
Dr. Bramm: My internship was actually in straight general surgery, but after my time in Mississippi I realized my niche was family practice. It was something about seeing the little kids grow to adulthood and the adults grow to retirement. The dynamics of family practice appealed to me a lot.

VB: What is your basic philosophy of parenting?
Dr. Bramm: I think that if you love your children and treat them in a consistent manner you’ve probably got an even chance. I say that because the external influences from peer groups and so forth get to be unmanageable starting around middle school age. But most of the time if you love children unconditionally and treat them consistently, they’ll come back to you when they get older.

VB: Do you see many infants?
Dr. Bramm: Early on we did a whole lot of infant care, then the practice decided that we didn’t do enough hospital work to take care of high-risk or very sick children, so we turned that care over the neonatologists. Now I may have 10 or 15 babies at a time. I imagine pediatricians see a hundred times that number.

VB: What are your recommendations as far as breastfeeding goes?
Dr. Bramm: I think that every woman ought to be provided the opportunity to breastfeed and given the education for it. I think mothers should nurse as long as they want to. I’ve had several mothers who were still nursing at 2 and 3 years.

VB: What is the most important advice you can give to new parents?
Dr. Bramm: Have patience and persistence. If you can’t get your schedule like the baby’s in the first two days, you have to be persistent. If milk let-down doesn’t occur in the first two days you have to be persistent. Time will heal most anything.