Breastfeeding Specialists in your hospital?

[NICUDreamer11]

Hi, everyone! I'm still in nursing school but I love reading all your posts about NICU issues - they are so informative and really interesting (as you can see from my name, I want to work in the NICU after I graduate!).

On that note, we had a lady from La Leche League speak in our Nutrition class today about the advantages of breastfeeding and that made me wonder if there are breast feeding specialists in your hospital (NICU, nursery or mother/baby)?

~If so, what are they called and what kinds of things do they do?

~What kind of training do they have to have before working?

~Do they work all the time (24 hours a day) or are they there usually in the day time?

I'm just curious about how this works in your hospital because I found her presentation really interesting! Thanks for your help!

Jenny

[EarlyAdditionRN]

hi!

yes, it is callled "lactation consultant". they are an rn first and then have special training, a certain number of documented clinical hours, and pass the international board of lactation consultant exam. they typically work day shift. you can get more info by going to www.ilca.org

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Just to clarify, not all LCs are RNs, though I would definitely agree that being a nurse helps. There are many many different pathways to becoming an LC and the website that majotyte mentioned is a great one if you want to see them all.

At our hospitals, most of our LCs are nurses, but not all. We have some that specifically do mother/baby and some that specifically do NICU, as each has its unique challenges. I am sure this differs by hospital, but our LCs (mother-baby generally has 2 each day) are there in the day/evening. Nights (from about 7p on) are pretty much on our own. It forces us to get creative and also to bone up on how to handle breastfeeding problems. I kind of like it that way.

NICU has LCs during the day/evenings as well. Some mother/baby nurses also work as 'lactation nurses' occasionally. They don't have the LC title but are working toward it and spend a day here and there helping breastfeeding moms.

[NICU_babyRN, BSN, RN]

Our LCs are not all RNs!

While we have some RNs who are LCs, we also have an awesome program where our graduate's MOMS become LCs.

We have about 5 LCs who are actually called "peer counselors". All of them had babies in our unit in the past and do a great job helping moms who are pumping and breast feeding. They also help us with non-nutritive feedings (at least for the first time they are doing it), putting babies to breast for feedings...and they keep track of all of our overflow milk!

They are all certified LCs. We have them from at least 7a-7pm, but some stay later.

With over 90% of our moms supplying milk, we need them around!