You know you're a lactation consultant when...

I'm an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant). If you are thinking about breastfeeding, or you are breastfeeding, or someone you love is breastfeeding and you find yourself in need of assistance, I highly recommend finding an IBCLC to work with. Unlike various other "specialties" (breastfeeding nurse, lactation specialist, "the one who knows all about nursing", friends, grandmas, a large portion of nurses and doctors, etc...), an IBCLC has extensive education specific to breastfeeding. This is what we do and we've spent YEARS studying this small subset of information. The exam to become an IBCLC is only offered once a year and for 2009, it's tomorrow. In honor of that, I've compiled a short list:
You Know You're a Lactation Consultant When...

• ...you get very excited over poop. Specifically, yellow poop with "seeds"
• ...people regularly send you emails with pictures of their baby's poop
• ...you've just about memorized what an 8% loss is for every birthweight from 6.5 to 8.5 pounds
• ...you understand, and have an opinion on, the "yeast vs. bacteria" debate
• ...you know that adoptive moms can breastfeed
• ...you also know that (while uncommon) it is possible for men to breastfeed
• ...you start to feel like you just might be more anxious than the mom eagerly awaiting baby's birth date
• ...you find yourself staying up late waiting for just one more call or one more email from a client
• ...you grieve and rejoice over every setback and achievement of countless preemies
• ...you have a collection of photos of babies that don't belong to you
  
• ...you've learned the supreme importance of supporting a woman in reaching her goals, not your own

Good luck to everyone sitting the exam this year!

It's not SPAM on your own blog

Beautiful thing about having your own blog...you can advertise, for free, to your heart's content and it's not considered SPAM. So here we go--
I have a Lactation Educator Training coming up at the end of March in Katy, TX. My trainings have changed from the old 2 day format to a 3 day format in support of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. The new format covers more clinical skills and is ideal for someone wanting to teach breastfeeding classes to parents or health care providers as well as nurses/nursing students who already work in a clinical setting. If you are interested in signing up for the training, you can visit my website, Empowered Momma, for more information. Keep in mind that if you are interested in a training in another city or state, I can most likely work that out with you, just let me know!

If you are local and interested in classes or lactation counseling for parents, you can also find information on that on the website. I'm currently doing childbirth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering and baby-wearing classes as well as offering a package deal for private lactation services.