What do you want to change when you grow up?
Thriving in Your Lactation Career
“What do you want to change when you grow up?”
I heard this question a few weeks ago. It was meant to replace the well-worn “What do you want to BE when you grow up?”
As a lactation career coach, I fell in love with this question immediately, on the spot, no elaboration needed.
It’s the essence of why we get into this work.
Our passion and enthusiasm for what breastfeeding can do for a person lead us to want to make the world that surrounds new parents better. We want to change the world.
In narrower terms, though, we each have our own reasons, scope, intended audience, and particular purpose in pursuing lactation care as a career.
If our “why” is that we want to change the world so that more people can experience the empowerment of breastfeeding, then our “how” is the specific way we will do that, and it’s what looks different for each and every one of us.
In the lactation counselor training courses I taught a few years ago, we tested our students’ knowledge by asking them to form small groups to create the outline of a curriculum they would use to teach a prenatal breastfeeding class. We asked them to fully develop the vision of who they would teach, where it would be held, how they find students to fill the seats, and other details about the environment of their classroom. The outline of content itself had to be matched to the target audience and to the amount of time they were giving themselves to teach.
We had adapted this exercise to be a little more creative than the standard “create your prenatal breastfeeding class curriculum” because we found that a little boring. Everyone’s ideas looked the same, and their outlines were so similar that it didn’t teach us or them anything.
What we learned about our students from this expanded exercise was truly incredible.
A group of health educators in a community clinic developed a class they proposed to teach over a series of weeks to pregnant high school students, who they would provide transportation from school to the clinic to attend. They even planned a special celebration at the end of the last session of teaching where the students’ families would be invited to join them and be surrounded by resources that would help encourage them to support breastfeeding in their households.
A group of nurses planned a class for other nurses who were pregnant and who would benefit from the practical tips they had learned when they were navigating the transition to working nursing shifts while lactating. Integrating the lactation knowledge they had gained in the training with what they knew as nurses AND what they had personally experienced inspired them to put together a curriculum outline that would feel very personalized for other nurses.
Some groups brainstormed ways to teach in shorter class sessions spread out over a period of time, and some created weekend workshops to give new parents an immersive experience including things like a guest speaker on a related topic.
Once we observed a group of NICU nurses working through how to create a class that brought their particular set of nursing and lactation expertise to the appropriately-matched audience: those who were pregnant and hospitalized for preterm labor. As soon as they understood the power of this opportunity, they were quick to build a short, adaptable curriculum that could be taught one-to-one in a hospital room and that allowed them to provide a little bit of comforting orientation to their facility’s procedures and familiar faces.
I cannot overstate how much this exercise meant to us as instructors as we saw these students excitedly present their class outlines to the rest of the training cohort.
Every group was so proud of what they created, and everyone became even more excited and motivated as they learned from each other.
Without exception, every one of their ideas was amazing. It was matched to their expertise and the target audience they most wanted to serve. Each idea was a reflection of how its creators most desired to change the world.
How are you finding inspiration to serve your target audience these days?
How can YOU best serve in the world of lactation care?
Are you currently working or volunteering in a setting that allows you to serve the population you most want to impact in a way that is aligned with your purpose?
I’d love to hear your answers to these questions!
If you are:
inquisitive
curious
open-minded
humble
and committed to growth,
you’re in the right place.
This is where aspiring & current lactation care providers find inspiration, connection, and resources to grow and thrive in their careers.
My practice as a lactation career coach aims to empower and guide individuals in achieving their professional goals in the field of lactation, whether it's through clinical practice, education, counseling, or advocacy.
I hope that the resources provided here are helping you to fulfill your vision of continual growth as a lactation care provider!