I decided to go ahead and go for it - a bunch of friends are going to take the exam next year, since the educational requirements are going to go up for the 2012 exam. Even if I never use it professionally, I think it is worth taking advantage of the opportunity.
Now we just have to figure out which online course we’re going to take, and start reading, reading, reading.
I may look for work in a medical setting, or freelance, or look into research and writing, or I might just add some more letters to the end of my name, have more knowledge, and have a good time cramming with my friends. We’ll see how it goes!
Yep, human lactation. Some people have trouble specifically lactating (e.g. many cases of retained placenta are found by LCs, since it usually inhibits milk production), and many more have trouble breastfeeding their babies due to problems with the mother, the baby, or both (or due to bad advice and poor support).
Lactation consultants have knowledge about how breasts make milk, how babies get milk out of the breast, and the problems that can occur with all that.
Feel free to ask questions - I live for this stuff!
I don’t want to derail the thread right off the bat - but considering my wife’s unbelievably unpleasant interaction with the La Leche League, I might as well.
You aren’t going to ally with them, are you? Making a mother of twins cry from guilt from failed breastfeeding didn’t impress me much.
Mr. Moto, I forget exactly what happened to you and your wife, but if a LLL Leader made her cry, I’m sure the Leader was not doing what the organization trains Leaders to do. I apologize on behalf of breastfeeding counselors - unfortunately there are a few assholes in any walk of life.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be working with LLL as an LC, as such. They are two separate endeavors. I might attend conferences and teach sessions or something. I think generally they are an important and useful organization, aforementioned occasional assholes aside.
Sunspace, I probably wouldn’t have much opportunity to work with midwives, unless I was lucky enough to get a job in one of the few places where they work in NC. I won’t need any further medical training beyond my LC courses, though a good portion of LCs in hospitals and doctor’s offices are RNs.
Are you becoming an IBCLC, or some other credential?
The LCs at the hospital where I had my son were absolutely wonderful. Many of them were also NICU nurses. I credit one of them for the turnaround that let me take my son home - and it wasn’t even really a breastfeeding issue! She realized that he was having a hard time with the bottles we were using to supplement after nursing (he was premature and sleepy and huge, and I was nursing, then bottlefeeding, then feeding via NG tube to get the total amount of breastmilk into him that the doctors had ordered for each feed), and recommended switching (from Avent to Dr. Brown, fyi). He suddenly started taking as much milk as he needed by bottle, without requiring the NG tube, which was the condition for us to be allowed to take him home.
I never had to give him formula after the ounce that he had on his first night in the hospital, and I nursed him until about 16 months. He is now a 36-pound, 3-foot-tall almost-two-year-old, and the picture of health.
Where do you operate out of, and how do you contact patients?
Pepper Mill was hastily bundled out of the hospital after MilliCal was born. She had an enormous amount of trouble breastfeeding, but she wasn’t in the hospital after the first couple of days, and those advising seemed to be accusing her of not trying seriously enough. We really could have used a Lactation Consultant – MilliCal ended up getting mostly formula. But how would we have gotten hold of one?
Johnny L.A., I find your comment a bit of a let-down.
I will be getting my IBCLC, yes.
There are a few options for how and where to practice.
In a hospital
In a pediatrician’s office
In a birthing center
Freelance from an office
Freelance from home - visiting mothers in their own homes
I’m not sure about all the marketing possibilities. Being known by LLL, childbirth educators, hospitals, and doctors would be useful. I think the best resource for finding a good LC is La Leche League. You can look up your local leaders online, and call for information. Or LCs often advertise in LLL flyers.
It’s difficult to help mothers as much as they want, without seeming too pushy. One mother may want to induce lactation for an adopted baby, pumping and using an SNS around the clock, taking experimental drugs and herbs, and devoting every iota of energy to breastfeeding and avoiding any formula. The next mother may check “interested in breastfeeding” on her hospital form because she thinks it’s expected, but she’s not really keen, and is OK with using formula exclusively. And everything in between. And moms have just been through one of the most challenging, grueling events of their lives, they’re flooded with hormones, and they are often running on no sleep. Add to that the LC may be over-scheduled, trying to see way too many patients in too little time. And many may not have much training in sensitivity. It can wind up with mis-communication and mothers feeling unheard and frustrated.
UC, that’s great that you’re pursuing this. I wish I had lined up an LC before my oldest was born. We had a really hard time with breastfeeding and when I called the hospital for a reference to a lactation consultant, they didn’t even know what I was talking about. They finally had someone call me back - a week later.
Un-Cinn: good for you!!! Being a guy, I tend to not be taken too seriously when I chat with soon-to-be Moms about their kid and maybe breast-feeding instead of saving all those formula coupons. LC’s fill a HUGE void for many a new mother, especially ones that are truly and innocently ignorant of how things work ‘naturally’. At times, that new mom is frustrated, in pain, and can go towards the easiest food for kid which may happen to be formula in some situations. My first two kids were nursed, but neither one made it easy for Mom. Back then, I was ignorant of what-to-do, and our LC…well, she made all the difference. I wish I could give her a big ol’ hug even now
LC’s know what to do and how to achieve ‘breast results’, which is best for kiddo, too.
Thanks for helping them moms/kids out in a sometimes confusing environment!
Awesome! I totally credit my lactation consultant for the fact that I’m still breastfeeding at 6 months. I had lots of difficulty and agonizing pain at the beginning - without her I would have stopped before 6 weeks. Good luck!
At least you’re going into it with a big advantage over many midwives- you’ve breastfed successfully and enjoyed it.
My one big tip- don’t ever, ever say “it only hurts if you’re doing it wrong”.
A few months ago I sat in a paediatric A&E with a mother who was at her wits end trying to feed her 4 day old baby- I mean weeping uncontrollably. She had complained to her midwife on a home visit that her nipples hurt, and that is what she was told. She was then told that as he had lost 8% of his birthweight he mustn’t be feeding right and she should take him to hospital in case he was dehydrated.
He wasn’t- he had a great latch and was feeding fine, she just had the normal pain and discomfort of a new nursing mother.
All she needed was someone to tell her that yes, it hurts, but it gets better and that her baby was feeding properly.
As a female doctor who is going to be working in general practice I’d love to use my experience breastfeeding to help my patients, but my inquiries with various organisations have left me with the distinct impression that they would rather I not. I get not wanting to medicalise a normal human function, but many women are going to see their family doctor during their pregnancy and in the first weeks of their babies’ lives- I’d like to know what to say and how best to say it, rather than just handing out a leaflet and a phone number of the local LLL.
Neat! I’m so jealous! Do you have a medical background? I looked into becoming an IBCLC about a year ago, but I think it would take a lot of schooling for me - I was an English major, and the only experience I have with lactation is successfully BFing my now-2-year-old (and, of course, encouraging friends and the like!).
That’s awesome. I breastfed my daughter until she was a little over 11 months old and she suddenly became totally uninterested in it. My plan was to do it as long as she wanted, even though I really wasn’t a fan of nursing at all. You make sacrifices for your kids, you know? I had a traumatic c-section under general anesthesia, and my milk didn’t really come in until she was a week old. I never would have been able to do it had it not been for the LCs.
I got into this because we had such a difficult time at first too. Tongue-tie, oversupply, forceful letdown, yeast, blebs - I was a wreck!
As someone who has been through it, I can understand the weird combination of terror, pain, love, excitement, guilt, worry, and exhaustion that surround birth and initiating breastfeeding. I hope I can carry that through as compassion and care for patients, and never be someone’s LC horror story!
What’s the longest you have witnessed a mother breastfeed their kid? I personally think 2 years is too old. But my wife and I were at a pic-nic with a bunch of other families and this 4 year old kid comes running up and tell his mom that he’s hungry and she let’s him crawl into her lap and pulls out one of her boobs and let’s the kid suck away!:eek: To each his own!
