Benefits of a Prenatal Lactation Visit (or two)
This blog is always handwritten from my perspective and my clinical experiences — no AI slop found here!
I am a huge fan of prenatal breastfeeding education to support meeting your infant breastfeeding goals from the very beginning! Group classes that teach breastfeeding education can be very helpful in a number of ways — simply sitting with other pregnant parents is a bonding and community building experience. I also love group classes because we learn from each other and bring our unique experiences, values, and ideals to the table. When I teach group breastfeeding classes, I encourage lots of conversation and social support in addition to learning practical breastfeeding information.
However, one-on-one prenatal lactation visits have a different focus. In addition to general breastfeeding education, we review your medical history that could impact your milk supply and discuss your birth plans because birth and breastfeeding go hand in hand. I make clinical recommendations based on you and your baby’s needs that simply cannot happen within the setting of a group class.
Many of my prenatal lactation visits are second time mothers whose first breastfeeding experience did not go as they hoped. Now they are pregnant with a second baby, armed with more information and fully aware that they need support and skilled care to help them meet their goals. We thoroughly disentangled their first baby’s birth and feeding history and her milk supply history in order to determine what went right, what went wrong and what could have been done differently. This can be an emotional conversation but I find it essential to understand the past in order to make new plans for the future. This reflective conversational also helps provide foundational recommendations for clinical lactation recommendations and referrals.
In the past, my prenatal visits focused on the big picture of breastfeeding your new baby but in the the past year, I have honed my prenatal visits to focusing on the first few days of your baby’s life. We spend a lot of time discussing normal breastfed infant behavior, how hospitals can help or hinder early breastfeeding, and when to reach out to me for hands-on support. We also discuss prenatal hand expression and colostrum collection and decide together what that might look like for you. I think an added benefit of a prenatal visit is that you and I have already built rapport. That rapport makes it easier to reach out to book your first visit with your baby because you know me, you’ve already been to my clinic, and you know how excited I’m going to be to meet your little one!
I am seeing truly phenomenal results with my prenatal lactation visits. I am seeing mothers with healthy milk supplies, latching babies, solid newborn weight gain, responsive feeding and more than anything — confident mothers who feel prepared to breastfeed and prepared to ask for help when they need it!
In my ideal world, every family will receive at least one prenatal lactation visit because every family deserves the very best start!
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I provide clinical lactation care locally in Tallahassee, Florida and via my secure telehealth portal from my screen to yours. I offer holistic lactation care to you and your baby through the lens of health and wellness with a focus on creating ease and sustainability to reduce stress and bring more joy into raising your little one!
You can learn more about more about my services and in-network insurance benefits on my WEBSITE. Online booking is available HERE! Questions or comments? Please EMAIL me!
