Hi Christine! It’s interesting to hear about your background. It’s what I want for my IBCLC clinical hours as well - a well-rounded approach in different areas.
I’m currently volunteering once a week at a local birthing center. I do prenatal breastfeeding teaching for patients waiting for their ultrasound appointments and also their prenatal parents. And also see their postpartum patients.
I plan on volunteering at a local BFHI hospital as well. But I will have to take the mandatory 20-hour staff training (based on WHO BFHI guidelines) before I can start so I’m waiting for that training schedule.
Currently, there are no in-person breastfeeding support group in my city/state. Do you have any resources on how to start one?
As far as I know, there used to be regular “breastfeeding meetups”
Before the pandemic but it stopped.
I plan on starting one. It’s what I was looking for when I struggled with breastfeeding my newborn a couple of years ago.
Hi Gie! Love your plan. It brings in a lot of different experiences so that you will be really well-prepared.
On starting a local breastfeeding support group: this is SUCH an important way to serve families, and there are so many opportunities for you to be resourceful while building a service that meets the unique nature of the people around you.
Once you have determined where and when you will meet, consider yourself in Perpetual Marketing Mode!
Seriously, my role as Facilitator of Baby Cafe Bakersfield began in 2014 and the marketing does not ever stop.
One of the very first things we did was to get our meeting information to the nurses in the local hospitals. Of course they need to know the What (like the logistics of the meetings), but what they really need is the Why and the How You Help. They have to trust that they can send their patients, whose outcomes they care about because they have become connected to them, to YOU.
Then you'll move outward in circles toward the other places where pregnant and new mothers find themselves: doctors' offices, community centers, retail spaces, etc.
The printed information you leave there can include a QR code that connects them to your website (or even just a simple landing page with the information).
When you post on social media, there are a few things you can do to market in a hyper-local way.
First, always tag your posts with the location of your meetings. It's one of those background things that doesn't feel necessary on the surface, but behind the scenes, it means your posts get shown to people in the right geographic location.
Then, tag local places and organizations which are relevant - even a local coffee shop that welcomes breastfeeding mothers or the public library that hosts a storytime for little ones. Those tags make your service more familiar and also help you get seen by the people who need you.
Name-drop local people and places so that people know that you are part of the same community - you watch the same people tell the news on local TV, you shop in the same places, you are stuck in the same traffic and experience the same weather.
Your posts should make you feel like a neighbor - incorporate that as you create posts. It's easy to fall into a trap of only posting things that position you as an expert on lactation, which, of course, you are - but people need to know they can talk to you. You want to be approachable.
Hopefully these ideas will help launch your ideas and get you started!
Hi Christine! It’s interesting to hear about your background. It’s what I want for my IBCLC clinical hours as well - a well-rounded approach in different areas.
I’m currently volunteering once a week at a local birthing center. I do prenatal breastfeeding teaching for patients waiting for their ultrasound appointments and also their prenatal parents. And also see their postpartum patients.
I plan on volunteering at a local BFHI hospital as well. But I will have to take the mandatory 20-hour staff training (based on WHO BFHI guidelines) before I can start so I’m waiting for that training schedule.
Currently, there are no in-person breastfeeding support group in my city/state. Do you have any resources on how to start one?
As far as I know, there used to be regular “breastfeeding meetups”
Before the pandemic but it stopped.
I plan on starting one. It’s what I was looking for when I struggled with breastfeeding my newborn a couple of years ago.
Hi Gie! Love your plan. It brings in a lot of different experiences so that you will be really well-prepared.
On starting a local breastfeeding support group: this is SUCH an important way to serve families, and there are so many opportunities for you to be resourceful while building a service that meets the unique nature of the people around you.
Once you have determined where and when you will meet, consider yourself in Perpetual Marketing Mode!
Seriously, my role as Facilitator of Baby Cafe Bakersfield began in 2014 and the marketing does not ever stop.
One of the very first things we did was to get our meeting information to the nurses in the local hospitals. Of course they need to know the What (like the logistics of the meetings), but what they really need is the Why and the How You Help. They have to trust that they can send their patients, whose outcomes they care about because they have become connected to them, to YOU.
Then you'll move outward in circles toward the other places where pregnant and new mothers find themselves: doctors' offices, community centers, retail spaces, etc.
The printed information you leave there can include a QR code that connects them to your website (or even just a simple landing page with the information).
When you post on social media, there are a few things you can do to market in a hyper-local way.
First, always tag your posts with the location of your meetings. It's one of those background things that doesn't feel necessary on the surface, but behind the scenes, it means your posts get shown to people in the right geographic location.
Then, tag local places and organizations which are relevant - even a local coffee shop that welcomes breastfeeding mothers or the public library that hosts a storytime for little ones. Those tags make your service more familiar and also help you get seen by the people who need you.
Name-drop local people and places so that people know that you are part of the same community - you watch the same people tell the news on local TV, you shop in the same places, you are stuck in the same traffic and experience the same weather.
Your posts should make you feel like a neighbor - incorporate that as you create posts. It's easy to fall into a trap of only posting things that position you as an expert on lactation, which, of course, you are - but people need to know they can talk to you. You want to be approachable.
Hopefully these ideas will help launch your ideas and get you started!