Lifeboats in Lactation
Imagine if we put people in lifeboats and sent them on their way, barely acknowledging that they would probably need some help learning to row them to shore, and that once they got to shore, they would almost surely need help getting past the rocks and cliffs.
That’s what is happening to parents who are being handed formula, breast pumps, nipple shields, and more. Whether they are getting them in the hospital after birth, from well-meaning people in the birth or lactation community, having friends or social media acquaintances suggest them, or receiving marketing messages that lead to their use, today’s parents are absolutely using a lot of stuff on their lactation journeys.
These are tools with specific purposes, interventions meant to create a bridge over a temporary problem in most cases. They aren’t always simple to learn to use, and it’s possible to use any of them in a way that can create parallel, additional problems. Then, when it’s time to stop using them, trying to navigate that alone without any professional guidance can be tricky.
Skilled lactation care providers are responsible to know how all tools work, their potential impacts on lactation, and how to support families using them. Therefore, as more and more parents use them, we are expected to keep up with the times, learning about new devices and tools and their specific nuances. It comes with the territory nowadays.
The problem is that not everyone really needs to use these tools in the first place, and they’re often recommended by people who are not skilled lactation care providers, not responsible to understand the breadth of their impacts, and not available to support people through and past their usefulness. It feels like an epidemic of people using products to navigate their lactation journeys and being sabotaged along the way by well-meaning but less informed people.
Skilled lactation care ensures that:
parents receive an explanation of why the tool or device might help and informed choice as to whether they want to use it or not
parents are taught how to use the tool or device properly, with individualized instruction that pertains to their exact situation
parents are supported and encouraged while they are using the tool or device
parents are educated and supported when the time is right to stop using the tool or device
The Affordable Care Act in the US includes coverage to ensure that every new parent has access to a breast pump, which is a wonderful thing when they need them. (Many of us remember a time not that long ago when many, if not most, of our clients & patients had no access to breast pumps if they were not in a hospital, and we do not ever want to go back to that.)
The increased accessibility of breast pumps, though, has led to the mindset that everyone needs to use a breast pump. That was never the intention, but it is certainly the reality. Many health care workers and licensed providers have also taken up this belief, regardless of physiological plausibility or evidence-informed practice.
But this isn’t a rant about breast pumps. It’s a reminder that lactation is possible without the use of products; that exclusively feeding from the body is still possible in 2021; and that when problems arise, skilled lactation care providers are an important part of the solution because they can support the use of needed, lactation-saving lifeboats like formula, breast shells, nipple shields, breast pumps, and more.
It’s heartbreaking to see the complications (medical, mental health-related, lactation-ending) which can arise when people don’t receive the education and support they need to use tools and devices. It’s even more heartbreaking when they tell you that they really hadn’t wanted to use them in the first place but ended up doing so on someone’s suggestion or uninformed opinion.
Lifeboats don’t actually save people’s lives if the people in them don’t know how to row them to shore or navigate the rocky shoreline to come ashore. People are being left out to sea by uncontrolled marketing, uninformed social media influencers, and well-meaning but untrained health care workers.
Photo by Burak Tonç on Unsplash
