When to contact a lactation consultant?

Who is a lactation consultant?

A breastfeeding counsellor or lactation consultant or breastfeeding specialist is a professional who has the knowledge and skills to help a nursing mother throughout the breastfeeding period. 

Many breastfeeding counsellors have knowledge of mixed feeding and artificial feeding. Medical professionals often tend to focus on treatments and diseases. Also the limited time is available at the doctor's visits, so usually there is not enough time to go over the basic, yet very important points about infant feeding and development. Lactation consultants become invaluable sources of knowledge that parents lack. However, breastfeeding consultant provides not only practical support, but also emotional and psychological support, increasing the mother's confidence and faith in her abilities, supporting and encouraging in the most crisis moments and during the period of adaptation to the new life as parents. Breastfeeding consultation can dispel parents' fears, worries and anxieties.

This is a relatively new profession that appeared about 40 years ago as a need to help breastfeeding mothers. Due to many factors, such as living in mono nuclear families away from mothers, grandmothers and other relatives who could tell and show how to breastfeed. In addition the increase in artificial feeding in the 20th century did not facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Even if the grandmothers were nearby, they often could not teach anything since they themselves did not breastfeed. It is because of the break in the transfer of knowledge and the appearance of lots of women who wanted to feed their children with their own breast milk, a new specialty appeared - a breastfeeding consultant. This was facilitated by the development of science confirming the value of breastfeeding.

A breastfeeding specialist has interdisciplinary knowledge in the field of lactation physiology, anatomy, psychology, pharmacology, nutrition, and child development in the first years of life. 

When can a breastfeeding consultant help?

Breastfeeding and lactation is a period in a woman's life, which causes a huge number of changes in the organism of a nursing mother at the level of physiology, anatomy, psychics, hormones and emotions. The birth of a child leads to the necessity of adjusting to a new role. For this reason, a large number of questions arise, which can often be answered by a breastfeeding counselor. The specialist will inform you about life with an infant and the development of the baby. 

Such related topics as sleeping, crying, infant care and behavior, indicators of successful development and growth of the baby, introduction of complementary foods are topics of consultations on a par with typical topics such as:

• Proper latching and effective breast latch;
• Problems with effective sucking and latching;
• Questions about the duration and frequency of the infant's naps/sleep and feedings;
• Increasing milk supply, low milk supply, lack of milk;
• Relactation;
• Lactostasis (blocked ducts, plugged ducts), mastitis, breast abscess;
• Oversupply, hyperlactation;
• Fast let-down;
• D-MER reflex (feeling on negative emotions during start of breastfeeding session);
• Engorged breasts;
• Problems with breastfeeding in the first days after delivery;
• Nipple or breast pain;
• Cracked or sore nipples;
• Nipple blister/white spot on nipple;
• Teething;
• Biting;
• Lactation induction;
• Weaning;
• Milk expression, pumping and storage of breast milk;
• Growth spurts and breastfeeding crisis;
• Introduction of complementary foods and breastfeeding;
• Sleep and breastfeeding;
• Crying baby, unsettled baby at the breast, unsatisfied baby after feeding;
• Breast refusal;
• Suspicion of food intolerance or allergy to mother's food in infant;
• Illness of mother or child during breastfeeding;
• Flat and inverted nipples;
• Redness and itching of the breast;
• Contraception and planning pregnancy during breastfeeding;
• Breastfeeding after breast surgery;
• Hypoplasia (lack of breast tissue);
• Breastfeeding after previous negative experience of breastfeeding;
• Breastfeeding twins, triplets;
• Issues on the use of donor milk;
• Pacifier and bottle using when baby breastfed (paced bottle feeding);
• Colic;
• Maintaining lactation and establishing breastfeeding of premature baby/babies;
• Breastfeeding in case of anatomical and physiological characteristics of the baby (chronic diseases, tongue tie, low muscle tone, cleft palate or lip, etc.);
• Cluster feeding (frequent feedings in the evening);
• Slow weight gain or no weight gain of the baby;
• Breastfeeding after caesarean section, traumatic labour, instrumental delivery, induction or stimulation of labour, analgesia with epidural anaesthesia in labour;
  
• Breastfeeding and medications, smoking, alcohol;
• Breastfeeding and diet/nutrition of nursing mother;
• Co-sleeping, safe sleep for babies, night feedings;
• Supplementation with expressed milk, donor milk or infant formula;
• Alternative feeding methods;
• Consideration of individual situations (return to work, hospitalization, chronic illness of the mother or baby, pregnancy, tandem feeding of an older child).

A lactation consultant is a healthcare professional but is not a doctor or medical professional and therefore cannot diagnose, prescribe medications or treat. The area of competence of a breastfeeding specialist is healthy breasts in the period of preparation for lactation and during breastfeeding.

However, the consultant will be able to advise which specialist to contact, tell which galactagogues, nutritional supplements, medications or medical procedures are usually used in certain problem situations associated with lactation, their benefits for lactation and risks. After consulting with both a breastfeeding consultant and a doctor, a nursing mother will be able to more successfully cope with the problem. Also, a lactation consultant can, based on his/her knowledge, competence and availability of scientific information, inform a nursing mother about the passage of certain medications into breast milk and compatibility with breastfeeding. Often, after treatment recommended by a doctor or medication suggested by a pharmacist or doctor, a nursing mother begins to worry about the compatibility of treatment and breastfeeding. Then consultation and support from a breastfeeding specialist is indispensable for overcoming fears, anxiety and maintaining breastfeeding.

In cases of breast surgery, retracted or flat nipples, chronic diseases of the mother, risk of premature birth, risk of hypoglycemia in the baby, expectation of twins, wish to express the colostrum before delivery, wish to prepare and start lactation as successfully as possible, counselling will be helpful before delivery. You can take your time to figure everything out and get ready!

If you want to consult or ask a question, write to me!