Using A Planner on Your Lactation Learning Journey
Planning & Tracking Your Learning Opportunities
You’ve been thinking about training to work in the lactation field, or maybe you’ve started already - how are you going to keep track of everything you want to do on your lactation learning journey?
I highly recommend using a planner - a physical, pen-or-pencil day planner.* You are going to hear, see, and find out about so many learning opportunities and things you should experience, and at the same time, your regular life is going to keep rolling along.
In order to keep track of all the things you want to experience, as well as to plan out how to get them all to fit into your journey without feeling rushed, a planner will be an essential tool. It can also serve as a journal that you can use later to fondly remember these early days of learning!
Lactation training involves so much more than just signing up for a course. Folks who allow their journey to unfold slowly and find diverse ways to learn have a richer and more educational experience, preparing them better for the work of lactation support.
For instance, I always encourage lactation students and interns to get involved with their local breastfeeding coalition or task force. Attending meetings with local people who are already on the job can highlight the needs in your area, and connections to local people can sometimes be exactly what you need when it comes time to lock down your clinical mentoring plan.
Attending local breastfeeding support groups to meet the leaders/facilitators and observe how the groups work is another incredible learning opportunity. Hearing what mothers and parents ask, what they share about their pregnancy, birth, and lactation experiences, and how they are supported by the group’s leaders is a critical part of learning how to counsel lactating clients. There’s also no easier way to observe breastfeeding children of many ages and stages, and you have to know the full spectrum of breastfeeding in order to really understand how to provide early lactation care.
If there are private practice lactation consultants in your area, you’ll likely find yourself reaching out to them to ask if they have any opportunities where you can meet up with them, observe their services, and/or ask them questions. When you are respectful of people’s time, it’s amazing how generous they can be, especially when they know that you need to learn!
As you likely already know, there’s a tremendous crossover of knowledge between birth and lactation, so another experience you might want to plan is observing a childbirth education class, a group pregnancy appointment (such as Centering Pregnancy), or even a doula or midwife circle (where birthworkers come together for support and learning.) It is so important to become familiar with the network of birth professionals in your area when you plan to provide lactation care in any setting. You want to know them and they will want to know you so that all of you can offer a well-rounded menu of local referrals to your clients in service of their needs.
Naturally, there will be classes, workshops, and courses on your lactation learning journey - a planner will help you keep track of these so you don’t overload yourself in any timeframe.
At some point on your journey, you may decide to join (or start your own!) study group for a certification exam, so you would want to track those meetings or sessions in your planner. Even if you’re studying on your own, you’ll need to block off study times so that you have a distraction-free (or minimally-distracting) zone in your days.
The more you learn, the more your lactation and birth reading list will grow! You’ll want to block off time for that to ensure that you are keeping up with current research and wisdom. Just reading social media posts is not enough to keep up, so freshen up your home reading area or find a fun one in the outdoors and plan to spend some time there catching up on everything in the journals!
Depending on how you set up your planner, you might use it to keep track of all of your contacts in the lactation and birth world, take notes on what you’re learning and what you need to remember, make a list of lactation books you’d like to read and/or acquire, ideas for social media content you’d like to create to educate the public about breastfeeding as you’re learning, and so much more.
You can choose any planner that works for you - maybe you already have one tucked away somewhere that you haven’t used! - the important thing is that you will keep it out and accessible so that you will keep using it. I use Erin Condren planning products because I find them beautiful and efficient and they stimulate my own creativity. (You can usually find great, inexpensive planners at Target in the Bullseye’s Playground and Dollar Spot areas!)
Using a planner on your lactation learning journey can help you create a realistic plan and timeline for accomplishing everything you want to do in a reasonable timeframe. I’d love to see pics of your planner with your lactation learning activities - tag me on IG @IBCLCinCA or use #LactationLearningJourney so I can check it out and share it!
Let me know what else would help you on your lactation learning journey! I have some great free resources for creating a vision for your lactation career and more on my website www.ChristineStaricka.com.
*Why do I recommend using a physical planner over a digital planner or calendar? A digital planner does not engage your brain in the same way as writing in a physical planner does. Using pens, stickers, markers, stencils, a ruler, even placing a bookmark to keep your current place - these are hand-eye coordination activities that engage your kinesthetic perception and learning processes. Regardless of how “artistic” or creative you decide to get with your physical lactation planner, creating a written record of your lactation learning journey is a valuable exercise which will result in you having a physical reminder of your accomplishments.
Great tips!!