Know any lactation consultants? Have questions...

[fergus51]

We sure are lucky dawngloves! I can't say enough good things about her. I came ffrom an OB background and consider myself fairly knowledgeable about breastfeeding as I have helped litterally thousands of women breastfeed, but the NICU babies are COMPLETELY different! Oral aversions, congenital deformities, impaired suck reflexes, babies who just want to be tube fed.... It is way more than ordinary breastfeeding can prepare you for! I tell the moms there that even breastfeeding a healthy term infant can be extremely challenging, so there's no shame in needing a little more help with an NICU baby.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I agree . .Fergus makes a great point. We too were having problems with the nurses and cna's telling moms conflicting things about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding your own child does not guarantee you have up to date knowledge. One nurse who had her kids 20+ years ago and breastfed had alot of old wife's tales to tell. :)

We do have a lactation consultant and she is great but doesn't work 24 hours a day. We have started sending our cna's and nurses to lactation classes so we are all sending the same message to our moms. Regular old normal delivery moms need alot of support to continue breastfeeding outside the hospital.

We did a survery a couple of years ago . .I did some of the phone calling. The major reason women stopped breastfeeding was no FOLLOW UP support at home. Our LC phones or visits all moms after discharge. I'd like to see more of that (home visits) . . waiting the two weeks to come back in to see the doc usually means the mom will stop breastfeeding. And not to diss the docs, the truth is they don't really know that much about breastfeeding, in my experience.

You know, I think I'd raise a stink about your lactation consultant. That is just ridiculous.

steph

[iceNICUnurse]

We dont have a lactaton consultant. The nurses are supposed to help the moms with breastfeeding. Unfortunatly we allso have a problem with conflicting advise.

So cant help you with this one!!

[RN from OZ]

We have a Lactation Consultant on Staff every day, she sees the worst cases, and she also holds a clinic after lunch for discharged Mums who are still needing support.

To work in NICU here, you have to be a midwife...so you know the breast feeding basics, we also have inservice meetings once a month on breast feeding techniques, stimulating sucking reflexes in neonates and milk storage etc...this is one of the most vital requirements for discharge planning...Baby cannot go home if it is not feeding.

Ask your LC to train up the staff !

[prmenrs, RN]

A good lactation RN is worth her weight in colostrum. IMHO, it is very shortsighted to not have one attached to the NICU. We have a team of them, mostly based in Mother-Baby, but they do see NICU babies. We also have a full time OT--they can specialize in Neonatology, including feeding issues and can be VERY handy.