:: LACTATION CONSULTANT
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Breastfeeding has been a part of my life since I was born. I honor my mother for this. Although she found herself unexpectedly pregnant one month after her wedding, she breastfed me for about two months, even though she was ill, terrified, young and isolated from friends and family. The flashbacks that I have had all my life of the lovely feeling of the teat in my mouth, have helped me endure some pretty tough times. This is where my fundamental attachment (pun intended!) to breastfeeding was born.
I never learned anything about breastfeeding in college, except that "some women breastfeed". That was nice but not very helpful. Can you imagine a nurse such as I was giving advice to anybody? I was young, had never been married or had a baby. I was convinced of the rightness of what I had learned, and counseled many experienced mothers about what they should do.
I knew I would breastfeed when my husband and I had our daughter, Vanessa. I have no idea why, except for the inner wisdom that came from my mother. I was blessed in many ways with her birth. She had perfect anatomy, and was a truly term baby girl, born via a spontaneous and unmedicated labor, the first Lamaze delivery at that hospital. My first husband was really helpful to me for the first time in our lives together (thank you, Kenneth). I remember a funny episode during the labor, a brief argument at 8 cms:
Him, "You're not supposed to do that breathing pattern until you are in transition!"
Me, tearfully, "But 8 cms IS transition."
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My sweet new daughter and I did well together, save for a brief rough spot when she, the gastroenterologist's daughter, threw up suddenly and he freaked. "Projectile vomiting!" His terror was palpable; I called La Leche League. They were so reassuring; "just too much milk for now" and "temporary". It was.
I became the local LLL Chapter Librarian, reading everything I could find. This voracious reading, a wonderful leader and nursing my baby, gave me the best foundation a person could have to become a lactation consultant. That was in 1975.
My success rate is way above 80%, at least as far as breastfeeding recovery goes. I suspect that nearly all the mothers I have worked with have gained some new awareness as a mother, even if breastfeeding ends up looking far different to the original idea.
A mother of twins described working with the lactation consultant and discovering together that there truly was a genuine medical reason that she could not breastfeed. She said that the LC put the babies skin-to-skin and left them all tucked in together. She said that she spent 5 priceless, precious hours with her babies. That time changed her into being a more secure, compassionate and intuitive mother. That LC was me; that's what I do.
There is so much that goes into breastfeeding: energy, genetics, vitality, luck, and circumstance. Each individual has their own dynamic interaction of these elements. I aim to fit in in the most helpful way, working with at least 2 individuals (the mother and baby), plus the family and immediate environment. What keeps me so involved with breastfeeding today is some form of grandmother energy I suppose, or perhaps the life force. I am doing what I can to keep us humans alive because we sure seem bent on doing ourselves in!
This wonderful work is what I have loved doing for nearly 30 years, is what I still love doing, and expect to keep loving as long as I live. I imagine that I will get better and better at this work as I live; why would I set in my mind some number as a goal to reach before I stop? I prefer to look inward, at my heart.
For years, I have been involved in all aspects of breastfeeding:
*Doing: for a lifetime total of 8.5 years with 2 daughters (Vanessa and Clelia)
*Helping: Since 1978, as a public health nurse in upstate New York
*Teaching: Everybody that will ask: pregnant families, health care
professionals, high schools, corporate offices, training classes, medical schools,college students...........people in line at the grocery store.
*Writing: Film Editor of the Journal of Human Lactation from 1994-2006
I've also had letters, reviews and articles published all over the world. I write to educate, to set policy and to express my opinions and views. I had the honor of writing the chapter on breastfeeding for the ALACE childbirth education training manual. (www.alace.com)
*Learning:I take classes and workshops, and attend conferences. I read voraciously, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest from England is a favorite, and Breastfeeding Review, from Australia is another. Every dyad teaches me something. My other work (childbirth education, craniosacral therapy, and teaching infant massage) also keeps my mind open and thinking about new things. I have done a short internship, following a speech and language pathologist around in a big medical center.
*Talking:I love to present at conferences. I meet many wonderful peopl, everywhere I go. I have a selection of conference presentations (click here) and I am happy to build new ones upon request. I also speak at local Nursing Mothers' meetings on topics of interest to new mothers
Fees are negotiable, and are in addition to travel and expenses.
If you are interested in hiring me, you can come to my lovely office, looking out to the woods behind my house. Or we can arrange a home visit. Travel will cost if you live more than 15 minutes away. I rent and sell pumps and FDA-Approved devices. Breastfeeding services are a package: a 1 1/2 - 2 hour visit, and then telephone support for as long as it takes. You tell me.
Click here to contact me.
People often ask me how to become a lactation consultant, and how I became one. The story about that is as follows:
My first schooling as a lactation consultant came with the birth of my first baby. I had some questions about breastfeeding and called my local La Leche League group. That was the first and biggest step I took. This phone call changed the course of my life as I became involved with that group as librarian and read everything that was available.
In 1978, I started working as a public health nurse in a rural county in upstate New York. Part of that work was to see all the new mothers and babies in my two assigned townships. That is where I began direct counseling.
My interest in breastfeeding became a passion. I started going to workshops offered by Health Education Associates, Karin Cadwell and Edith Tibbetts. I was introduced to a more formal world of breastfeeding research and lactation management through them, and was also recognized by them, particularly Karin, as having good ideas.
In 1986, I finally took the invitation offered by a friend and went to work at Booth Maternity Hospital, switching my area of clinical practice from medical-surgical nursing to maternity. There, I became known as a person knowledgeable about breastfeeding. (That only meant that I read a lot and could quote some evidence to base my practice.) I started spending more time working with breastfeeding, as well as continuing to attend workshops. I started a correspondence course with Breastfeeding Support Consultants, to prepare me to become a board-certified lactation consultant.
This home study course took a long time. I found it difficult to sustain the time and energy required to complete the course, although I did learn a lot and got through about 2/3 of it. After a year or so, I realized that I didn't have to finish the course to be a lactation consultant, that I could still help mothers and do a good job with as a nurse, with my Masters', and the education I had gathered from my reading, work, and conference attendance. I started calling myself a lactation consultant and working more and more in the field, and going to meetings of my local lactation consultant affiliate, PRO-LC.
At Booth, I started to learn about teaching childbirth education and related classes for adults. I began teaching there in 1988. I took some volunteer jobs within PRO-LC, (
www.pro-lc.org) and made connections within the network of childbirth educators and breastfeeding helpers. I became a volunteer Medical Liaison for the local nursing mothers' groups, and that led to my becoming involved in teaching the Nursing Mother's Advisory Council counselor training course. (
www.nursingmoms.net)
That led to being invited to work at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for a 3-month project, where I wrote the Breastfeeding Promotion Policy, set up a task force, wrote a directory (the first Philadelphia Breastfeeding Resource Guide), and developed a workplan.
I also started teaching childbirth preparation classes for many different agencies, including a local hospital organization. At one point, I was teaching over 300 classes a year. After Booth was closed (January 27, 1989, a victim of corporate medicine), I taught childbirth education classes at several hospitals, some clinics, a community agency, a local birth center, and privately.
During this time, my second daughter was born. I stayed home for about a year, then started teaching again.
I never did take any certifying examinations, either for lactation consulting or for childbirth education until 1996, when I had to be certified to teach in the local hospitals.
My requirements for taking the IBLCE exam were filled by my clinical hours as a nurse taking care of mothers and babies, by teaching, and by work in my private practice. I had continued to take every workshop that came my way, and started going to conferences about 1985. My first conference was the MCN conference in Baltimore.
There are many different pathways to being a lactation consultant. In a way, it was probably easier for me than it is now because I started when the profession was a baby, and there was less structure in place.
I suggest the website
www.iblce.org to learn more about the process of becoming certified.
July 1, 2006 UPDATE:
Back in 1992, I was hired by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health for 3 months. During that time, I wrote a breastfeeding promotion policy, co-created a Resource Guide, developed a workplan, and convened a breastfeeding taskforce. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health became the only city agency in the country with a breastfeeding division when the lactation consultant position became permanent in 1993. I was offered this position and declined; Kay Hoover accepted and for the next 13 years, did a fabulous job. Kay left the position to move into a job at Pennsylvania State University, doing breastfeeding research, setting up a community breastfeeding center, and developing a training program for lactation consultants.
Now I am the lactation consultant at the Health Department and am working diligently to help make Philadelphia the City of Motherly Love! My dream is that one day there will be both a Baby-Friendly hospital in Philadelphia, and a HMBANA-certified milk-bank.
