Should I Hire a Lactation Consultant?
Before pregnancy or the arrival of your baby, you may not have given much thought to the role of a lactation consultant. The duties of a pediatrician are often well understood, as most people have childhood experiences with doctors for illnesses or routine checkups. Similarly, the responsibilities of labor and delivery nurses, or postpartum nurses, are easy to imagine; they are by your side during childbirth and support your recovery afterward. But a lactation consultant? Is their role simply to help your baby latch if breastfeeding doesn’t come naturally? Or is there more to what they do?
In many hospitals—especially those certified as Baby-Friendly—you’ll meet with a lactation consultant shortly after giving birth. These professionals possess an extensive depth of knowledge to guide you through breastfeeding and pumping. In the hospital, a lactation consultant might educate you on:
- How often to breastfeed
- Recognizing your baby’s hunger cues and signs of satisfaction
- Proper latching techniques across various breastfeeding positions
- The significance of skin-to-skin contact
- When to begin pumping based on your specific needs
- Nipple care and managing engorgement
Most importantly, lactation consultants assess the effectiveness of your baby’s feeding. If they notice that your infant isn’t efficiently transferring colostrum or breast milk, they will help you create a personalized feeding plan. For example, they may suggest initiating pumping and demonstrating alternative feeding methods like syringe feeding to ensure your baby is nourished.
How a Lactation Consultant Can Help
Inpatient lactation consultants play a pivotal role in establishing a strong foundation for your breastfeeding journey. They teach you how to achieve a deep latch, essential for effective milk transfer and securing your milk supply. However, even with a solid start, challenges or uncertainties can arise. This is where outpatient lactation consultants, like those at The Confident Latch, can make a critical difference in your breastfeeding success.
Our business is centered on bringing compassionate, expert, and thorough care directly to your home. A lactation consultant from our team will arrive equipped with a highly sensitive infant scale to conduct a weighted feeding. This involves weighing your baby before and after breastfeeding to determine exactly how much milk they’ve consumed. It’s the most precise method for evaluating milk transfer during nursing.
Afterward, the consultant may observe a pumping session, offering tailored advice to help you maximize your milk production. By analyzing how much milk your baby transfers during breastfeeding and how much you can express afterward, the consultant can determine whether your supply is sufficient or identify potential concerns.
During consultations, our lactation consultants perform thorough assessments of both mother and baby. This includes evaluating latch quality, the feeding process, and the baby’s oral anatomy and functionality. Our lactation consultants are skilled at identifying and resolving breastfeeding challenges, such as:
- Nipple anatomy concerns
- Low or oversupply of milk
- Powerful letdown reflexes
- Infant tongue or lip ties
- Suboptimal breastfeeding positions
- Slow or inadequate weight gain
- Breast or bottle refusal by the baby
With the home visits that The Confident Latch offers, a lactation consultant can serve as an invaluable resource for addressing these challenges and empowering you to achieve your breastfeeding goals.
