Lactation Consultant Role

[mommy2boysaz]

I'm wondering what role lactation consultants have in your OB units? Especially those smaller, community hospitals where a lactation consultant isn't necessarily going to be busy every day with only lactation assistance. What are they expected to do with their time in between lactation-related work?

Thank you!

[klone, MSN, RN]

I haven't worked as an LC in a long time, but I did work part time in that capacity (along with another IBCLC) at a smaller community hospital (we had about 1200 births/month). We sort of job shared, although she was the primary LC because I preferred doing L&D and wasn't interested in doing lactation on more than a very part-time basis.

Anyway, as a part-time LC in a smaller hospital that didn't have a fulltime lactation department, we would generally work 4 hours out of our 12-hour shift just doing lactation stuff, rather than taking a patient load. For instance, for a good part of my time there, I worked an 11a-11p shift, so some of the time, they didn't give me a patient load until 3p, and from 11-3 I would do lactation. I would go from room to room and ask women if they had any questions or needed help with anything. I would spend time on the phone, cold-calling patients who had been discharged, asking how things were going for them. We had put the word out that we were available for patients to come in and bring their infants to the unit (we were not billing for this) if they had problems, and we would see them on an outpatient basis for lactation problems during these times. Since there were two of us RNs doing this, there were usually times throughout the week where one of us was there where patients with problems could come in and one of us would be there. And then we had a monthly breastfeeding class on Saturday afternoons in the hospital conference room that the other nurse primarily taught, but I filled in and taught about 25% of the time. We also had a breastfeeding voicemail line where people could call and leave messages with questions and one of us would check it daily and call people back.

The other RN and I sort of created this role with our nurse manager's blessing. So in essence, we were both L&D nurses who happened to also have our IBCLC certification, so they were able to utilize us in both roles. THey would never have hired us *just* to be lactation.

[adjappleton]

At my small community hospital one of the RNs was also the LC. If she happened to be working when someone needed her (she was part-time L&D), she would assist as needed, otherwise the mother was supposed to ask for appointments with her. Quite honestly her expertise as a LC wasn't the greatest. I found much better assistance from the local La Leche league volunteer.