This is a question the Pasqua South Medical Centre office staff often get asked when they make the recommendation to book an appointment with me. I am going to try and answer that question for you, and them.  The centre staff may actually not know all the benefits of seeing me either. I am "new" to their space, they are getting used to me and gathering experience. They can see the improvements mom and babies are having, but they really do not know much about my services vs the free services. I bet it is safe to say that most people don't know the differences. 

I am going to highlight a few. If you think of others that could be added, by all means leave a comment and I will add them in! 

1) We, the client and myself,  have a mutually agreed upon, prescheduled time. Free clinics often have you come in, take a number & sit and wait for your turn. They won’t likely know how many moms are going to show up, meaning mothers & babies (maybe fathers and other children,, too) could wait for quite some time and then be feeling rushed. They see all the other moms & babies waiting for their turns. At the centre we have a scheduled time, hopefully to your convenience and we allow enough time to avoid feeling rushed. Home visits provide a scheduled time AND the privacy and convenience of your own home. 

2) I simply have more availability and flexibility. Not only is the timing better but you get more options as to when. Again, free clinics might only happen once a week. What happens if your struggles start on the evening the free clinic was being held and you missed it? Or sometimes you may benefit from two appointments only 2 or 3 days apart. A week can seem like an eternity when you are struggling.  

3) I am an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant  (IBCLC). Not all the staff at the free clinics may be an IBCLC. The free clinics are staffed by Public Health Nurses (PHN's). Some PHN’s are IBCLC’s but not all are. I am an IBCLC dedicated solely to breastfeeding, with 10 years of experience helping moms and babies, 5 years as an IBCLC. (By the way, if you use the free clinic, don't hesitate to ask if the person helping you is an IBCLC. If you really wanted to, you could consult the IBCLC directory.)

4) Education is a high priority to me. I mean MY education and I mean YOUR education. I have attended, and continue to attend, a wide variety of additional & extended trainings and conferences. I have a strong ethical background to practice evidence based lactation “science”. I also want to give you enough information about what is going on with you and will answer all the questions you have. We book enough time to be able to do this. 

5) In all my years of experience I have had access to ranges of breastfeeding from normal to extreme difficulties. My initial exposure to breastfeeding help was a peer-to-peer support group where our scope of practice was to help mothers by providing emotional support & information within “normal” breastfeeding. I got to know normal really well and be introduced to some not so "normal".  I was super curious about those not-so-normal cases and pursued my IBCLC. Now I have much more training with the outliers of normal. I am also able to follow my own client cases much more closely to monitor outcomes and refine the plans along the way. This gives me the advantage to know whether the information and care plans I am sharing with clients really work. Often in a free/public setting you will be exposed to different staff member every visit and they do not have that same luxury. They might tell all the moms to do the same “thing” thinking it is best practice and not realize that is not useful for moms to do and they are not getting the desired outcome. 

6) I have direct access to centre physicians if something is outside my scope of practice or comfort zone and we want or need a physician involved on some level. This is especially useful for further diagnostic testing or prescriptions we might want to consider. We have developed some great protocols together and collaboration like this is unique, yet so beneficial and much more efficient for resolutions of concerns. 

7) It is my standard practice to do a through history of mother and baby. We need to make sure that we have all aspects and contributing factors considered when we are determining why there might be struggles. There are more factors to lactation than most people are aware of. I go much further beyond getting a better latch and a better position. We make sure to look at the situation from a few lenses. We pull out the puzzle pieces that might be problematic and piece by piece get the whole puzzle fitting together into a nice picture. 

You should hopefully be able to see what we are offering is completely different from what is being offered for free.  You can count on focused, one-on-one care with a plan to approach the issues that brought you to me. You have the opportunity for follow up with the same person you saw originally and someone that can dialogue or report back to your physician and other care providers. I can help you address the specific concerns you have and reassure you what is the normal course of breastfeeding and give you my expertise with the more challenging aspects, with references and resources from the latest research. I can also make referrals and recommendations easily to a variety of other health care practitioners who may be of value to your specific concerns. 

I look forward to seeing all of you and your darling little ones. Please feel free to book an appointment at your convenience. 

Canadian parents need some awareness about the health and future health of their children.

It is said about 98% of mothers “initiate” breastfeeding after birth, in home and in hospital. At six months about 26% are still breastfeeding. Stats can be seen here. One of the primary reasons women quit is perceived low milk supply. 

We are all familiar with the arguments of “But, some moms just don’t make enough”, “I will try to breastfeed but if I am one of those mothers that cannot produce than I guess I cannot breastfeed”. Correct, some moms do not produce milk, but certainly not 75% of women. When worded that way, hopefully more people say, “yes, that can’t be possible”.

Many women do have low supply. Low supply does not equal no supply. Low supply does not equal not having any ability to make milk. Low supply can very often be avoided, turned into full supply, or can be worked with in addition to supplementation. Low supply does not need to end all breastfeeding.

What is going on then? That is not an easy answer and cases are all unique and need to be assessed however, there can be underlying answers that are similar or related.  Some examples (the list could be much bigger)

·         Birth experience (trauma, separation, medications)
·         Supports (hospital staff, family, friends) or lack there of
·         Education (parents, grandparents, doctors, nurses, midwives) again, or lack there of
·         Returning back to school or work

We seem to be setting the aim for optimal starts for our babies and children but we are not often striving to reach them. If we become derailed why are we not getting back on track? Luckily, we can get back on track when we find ourselves off track. You need to know this.

We need to get serious about giving our babies the best start. Old arguments do not hold much weight anymore. “I was formula feed and I am ok (fine, survived)”. What is ok? What is fine? What is survived?

We have overcrowded health care systems. And we have normalized this situtaion. Surprising to some, breastfeeding, or lack thereof, can be linked back to the majority of the health conditions that patients have. We need to normalize breastfeeding to reduce the strain on our health and wellbeing. We cannot rely on the system of disease care to be the system that is going to help support our babies getting off on the right foot – being exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months and continuing to 2 years or beyond as suggested to be optimal buy the authorities of children health. (AAP, CPA, UNICEF/WHO)

It is time to take charge of our own bodies and our children’s future. It is up to us to give our kids the best start that only we can give them.

We need to move past the idea that we have free health care. We simply do not have free health care. We have access to (some) free disease care. Healthcare should be disease and illness prevention. This certainly is not free. We need to start being accountable for our own healthcare. This lack of accountability is why we have maxed out healthcare facilities and resources. If we had more accountability we would make better choices. If the system wasn't so strained right now we could suggest that we start to put disease and illness prevention first, but right now that isn't a priority of the system, even though it is the priority of many citizens. 

With that awareness we need to start at the very beginning of an infant’s life and choose breastfeeding as a key to lifelong health.

There are lots of old arguments. It is time to let go of those. This is not about past choices, which were based on “what we knew then”. We know more/better now and when we know better we do better.