Breastfeeding and the Weather

When we think of Saskatchewan, we don't think about breastfeeding and "natural disasters", but as I sit in my house looking out the window today, I do think about the advantages of breastfeeding in this province when Mother Nature presents herself like she did yesterday and today.

After a couple days of above 0 temps we have had melting snow and ice, which is usually a treat. But add to that freezing rain for a few hours and then fresh fluffy snow overnight and all morning and temps that dropped drastically and we have a dangerous recipe for travel.

In a news report, I saw that there were 28 reportable accidents in 24 hours in our city. How many were not reported or reportable? Yikes, that makes 1 or more an hour that needed assistance.

Wow, am I glad to be able to stay inside safe with my children, one who is a young breastfeeding infant.

But, what if he was not breastfeed? What if I ran out of an alternative to feed him, which for the vast majority of non-breastfeed babies in our province, would be formula? Forced into heading out onto these roads to shop for infant formula would be awful.

Add to that, what if I was out travelling on the roads, and got into an accident, either with or without that baby with me. Now, I have a hungry baby whom I cannot get food for, that I may or may not be with, and an even bigger delay in getting him feed. That sounds stressful to me and would be stressful to that baby.

As a breastfeeding mom, an accident delay if we did happen to be travelling, at least maintains a food source for the infant. So long as mom and baby can remain together, baby has a food source. Of course, accidents are the extreme, but what if we were to have gotten stuck in some snowy/icy roads. In conditions like this it can take hours for help to come. Babies cannot wait hours to be feed. I did get stuck in some snow while travelling with a baby a few years ago and it did take hours for help to come. I was so grateful that I was able to just nurse that baby while we waited.

So, while we do live in a province that is free of hurricane's and earthquakes that can create major havoc for days on end, loss of electricity, food shortages, etc and we can easily think of why breastfeeding is so important in times like that, Saskatchewan mothers are not immune for the effects of Mother Natures extremes and how they can impact infant care and well-being.

Take care in this crazy weather Saskatchewan families and happy safe, cozy, warm breastfeeding.

Labor/Birth Doula

 

Also called a childbirth or labor assistant, a labor/birth doula is a trained woman who will stay with you throughout labor and birth. The word "doula" is a Greek word meaning "woman caregiver".
Labor/birth doula's attend to the emotional and physical comfort needs of laboring women to smooth the labor process. A labor/birth doula gives you information about what is happening to you, facilitates communication between you and medical staff and supports your decisions. She makes suggestions on how you can best cope with labor and what will help labor progress smoothly.
As a labor/birth doula we will have 2 or more visits before the birth so that I can get to know you, and learn about your preferences, priorities and concerns. I can assist in writing your birth plan or preferences.
At the time in your labor that you need me I will join you and stay with you throughout your labor and birth of your baby and for about 2 hours after the birth. We will have at least one visit after the birth to review the experience. In addition, I am available by phone or email both before and after the birth for help, nonmedical advice, referrals or just to listen.
Doulas don't participate in any of the medical aspects of your care. Cost for doula services with breastfeeding support is $700

Professional Enhancement & Continuing Education

I wanted to share feedback from a workshop I facilitated last weekend. It was a two day "Breastfeeding and the Birth Professional" with a focus on the Professional Doula.

Recently I was a participant in Kim Smith's Breastfeeding Workshop for Doulas. I am a Registered Nurse and a CAPPA trained doula. My reason for taking the course was to add to my helping skills in the breastfeeding realm, as I primarily volunteer in the area of c-section and VBAC support, as well as talking to moms after they have experienced birth trauma and may have had breastfeeding difficulties as a consequence. I am also a babywearing educator, and often times mothers will turn to babywearing as a tool to breastfeed and have normalized activity. I thought that the workshop was very comprehensive and raised many key issues. Kim addressed a wide variety of topics, and reinforced what is normal to see and what key tools a doula can use to assist her client. It also covered elements, like the WHO code of breastmilk and breastmilk substitutes, BFI, and societal issues which affect our clients. We had lots of opportunity for discussion, videos which were informative and relevant, and Kim did a great job keeping us on task and facilitating the workshop. She came prepared with technology but it was very well balanced and well used to teach the workshop. My feedback to Kim was that every birth professional should review this information. Even though I am a registered nurse and have a degree, I found that the information Kim provided was cutting edge, evidence based, and would absolutely apply to any professional working with lactation. As a labour doula, I have seen the benefit to having additional breastfeeding support on board with my own clients. Not all clients are able to access feeding advice, and it has been inconsistent. I think Kim's workshop would absolutely apply to our professional development as nurses and definitely to doulas, midwives, and anyone else working with mother and child.

I thoroughly enjoyed the worshop.

If you are interested in having me speak with a group of professionals, please contact me.

Being an IBCLC is more than passing an exam, for me

Certainly, the defining markers of an IBCLC are that she has fulfilled the learning requirements, put in the hours observing and assisting, and ultimately passed the IBCLC exam. Passing that exam is important, make no mistake, but the journey does not end with a passing mark.

Frankly, I have learned much more since passing the exam than I had preparing for it. I thought I knew it all when I decided I was ready to write. OK not all; I had some refining to do, but I knew a lot. So, I refined. I felt ready to kick exam butt, with just the right amount of stress and worry to to indicate that I am human.

But one does not know what they don’t know, now do they? I soon learned that I knew a lot but that I had much, much more to learn. My “standard” theoretical answers were not the practical answers, or at least they did not get to the root of the issues I was seeing. Granted, I helped those moms and babies get by and meet goals, but I felt that there must be a better way. In my heart of hearts, even when moms and babies were happier, making it, doing well, I could feel that their breastfeeding relationships were not as peaceful or fulfilling as they could be.

With each new family and obstacle I learned more, and this continues to be true.

Each time I can get to an education event, I go.

Each opportunity I have to listen to a webinar, I listen.

But, most importantly, I listen to moms. How I interact with moms in my practice is unique. Not unique to me specifically, but it is not the normal practice of the other health care workers that those mothers will interact with.

I don't give moms 15 minutes of my time and walk out the door. I usually have 2 hours. This quality time is so important.

I follow up with my moms. I see the outcome of our work and time together. Is what I suggested working for them? Has it worked for others in the past? Why not this time? How is this mom and baby different from another seemingly similar situation?

I generally do not stop providing care until they are happy and content with their individual situations.

This is their relationship. I am an invited visitor, and one who is honoured to be so.

From a personal standpoint, my livelihood depends on the outcomes and happiness of my clients. If my clients are not happy, it is a lose-lose situation. They lose out on a contented breastfeeding relationship, I lose out on their word-of-mouth recommendations, and my family loses out on my income. This is not a 'side gig'. There is no job with benefits awaiting me if I fail. There is no paycheck for just showing up and seeing who I might be able to help that day. I must create the best me for my myself, for my clients, and for my family.