Your lactation clients want to be heard

Welcome to my IBCLC© Day 2023 Series! Each day I’ll share with you one piece of insight about our work. (If you’re too excited and you just want to read them all now, go here and download the whole list)

Let me know in the comments if you agree, disagree, never thought about it this way, or whatever you’re feeling!

1. Even when you are an IBCLC, you won't know the answer to every question your client or patient asks.

Really - you won't. They will have questions you could never have imagined. This goes for questions you will be asked by nurses, doctors, neighbors/strangers who found out you "do" lactation, and more.

But here's the beauty: you will know how to find the answers they seek. There will be time to locate it. As you gain experience, you will begin to more easily navigate between those questions which actually have answers and those which do not ("there's really no research about this; that's why we base our practice on what we DO know and what makes sense biologically.")

You have your textbooks and study materials, you know about great websites for credible, evidence-informed lactation information, and you're building your network of lactation colleagues so you can seek guidance and expertise. You are helping, even when it takes a bit more time to locate the answers your client is seeking.

We don’t know everything we need to know right now, and science takes time because science is a process, not an endgame. Keep your mind open always to the wonder of human lactation and how it hits differently for every person. Keep asking questions.

Keep learning (and not just from formal continuing education opportunities - learn from those you serve, read your journals, spend time discussing cases and concepts with your peers, including those in other health disciplines).

Most of all, keep listening. We may hold expertise as IBCLCs, but there is always more we can learn.

2. The lactation plan you & your client or patient created might not be the one they decide to use.

Circumstances change. People change their minds. Regardless of how much time you and your patient spent creating the "perfect" plan for them and their goals, by the next time you see them or speak to them, they may have moved on to a different plan.

It's not a reflection of your worth as an IBCLC, nor is it an indication that your plan was not good. Your responsibility is to create the lactation management plan with your patient (and to document it).

The patient is in charge of using the plan, and they can use it any way they want - as a strict guide to exactly what to do, as a list of suggestions, or as a way to understand what it will take to meet their goals and then make a decision about what they really want.

When you learn that the plan is no longer in place, adjust your thinking, clarify what they need next, and be there for this next step. Show up for your client and their goals, even when they're shifting, and you can rest assured you are doing your job well.

You cannot have an agenda in this work. You are not here to make people fit into a plan that feels right to you. You have to learn how to identify your personal biases about childbirth, lactation, and health in general; then you need to learn how to allow your professional responsibility to your client to override your personal biases.

Supporting someone to meet their lactation and infant feeding goals is about building a relationship with them. It’s not easy for people to trust you, a stranger, when they are in the midst of experiencing the emotions and the whirlwind of life with their new baby. Remembering that can help you enter into each new dyad’s space with grace and respect. And keeping that perspect