Working five days a week is so hard for me. I love being a nurse and one of the reasons have to be the schedule. Working 3 days a week, 12 hour shift is so good! You always have four days to spend with your family. Sometimes you can work six days straight and then be off for a whole week! You get to have a little vacation without spending your "paid time off".
And of course, I have a 6 month old baby that I have to take care of when I get home. Dad stays all day with her, and he wants some time for himself when I get home. All of that means it's going to be a challenge to find time to study. But I really want to pass this exam, so I'll try my best!
I started to be interested and learn about breastfeeding in Nursing School. I had my Internship in the NICU. The Hospital (Hospital Universitario Regional Norte do Parana) has a Milk Bank, where moms that have oversupply go there and donate their milk. The milk is pasteurized and fed to the sick newborns and babies that are in the NICU and Peds. The milk is not fed by bottles either. They use a small plastic coffee cups to feed the babies. During the whole hospitalization time, breastfeeding importance is stressed to the parents babies and sometimes the moms even receive free medicine to increase their supply.
That's me in the NICU in Brazil!
When I moved to USA and got a NICU job I was really impressed with the amount of formula fed to the babies. And here pretty much all the moms have access to a breast pump. It didn't make sense... Looking at statistics you can tell that many moms leave the hospital exclusively breastfeeding. That number drops at 3 months and drops again at 6 months and the number of moms that breastfeed until 1 year of age are very low.
I think there are many reasons why moms stop breastfeeding. Many moms are not very educated and aware of all the choices they have for the delivery of their baby. They trust the doctors and nurses decisions blindly. It would help if moms read more and had more support to find out about many options of giving birth. That way, no matter what they decide, they would feel more empowered and in control.
Nurses that are more educated in breastfeeding versus formula feeding and that know how to encourage, teach and support mothers to exclusively breastfeed in the Post Partum period would help. More Lactation Consultants in the Hospitals and referring all the moms to breastfeeding clinics for a follow-up would be so important. Guaranteeing access of working/student moms to breast pumps, pumping stations and to breaks to pump during their shift. Stop the nonsense of criticizing and harassing moms for breastfeeding in public. Educating everyone about formula feeding and how that affects the development of a child, all the risks and that formula should be used only in exceptional cases.
Breastfeeding moms (specially those encountering issues, problems, rocks on their road) need support, family, friends and specially other nursing moms to talk to, feel supported, feel like their doing their best and to keep trying!
Thinking about all of that, in 2010 I had the opportunity to take a course called "Grow our own - Lactation Consultant and IBCLC prep course", it was offered by WIC Riverside, CA and the teacher was Christy Hendricks. She is an IBCLC and a Doula. You can find out more about her and the courses she teaches here: http://www.birthingandbreastfeeding.com/
I learned so much and met so many amazing people taking this course... That is my class!
Here I am with my Certificate at my graduation. I was pregnant!
There is a conference coming up too: http://www.aboutfamiliesinc.com/conference.html
I have to check my work schedule, but I really want to go. I went last year and it was really good!
That's me with Dr. Bob Sears last year...
So I graduated as a Lactation Consultant last year and now I have to take my IBCLC exam :) Love it!!!
So... this is my journey with Breastfeeding so far. I hope I have some good news after i take my test! I'll let you all know.
TTYS,
Ca
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