Why I Care About This So Much
CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY MONTH IN THE STARICKA FAMILY
In our nuclear family of 5, the only month of the year which boasts 2 birthdays for us is November. In 2001, just 2 days before my 27th birthday, I gave birth to my youngest daughter, Alli.
Yesterday she turned 20 - and for both of us, these are the very first birthdays we have spent apart (thanks to the pandemic, which prevented her from being on campus at college last year). I had to mail her original vaccine card to her recently, and she laughed the other day on the phone when she told me that me enclosing her COVID vaccine card inside her birthday card envelope was the most iconic moment of this whole 18-month ordeal so far.
I'm sharing this because it made me think about how things that can seem so different weave together into the stories of our lives. For me, I learned VERY early in my budding lactation career that pregnancy, breastfeeding, and helping others on their lactation journeys were going to be tightly woven together.
In Feb 2001, as I sat in Gini Baker's Lactation Educator course, she told us that one of us would be pregnant by the time we returned for the second portion of the class several weeks later. When we returned, I was the one who raised my hand, having just recently learned I was pregnant with my 3rd child.
If this were someone else's lactation career origin story, it would probably end with me telling you about how I went into that phase of my life thinking I knew so much about breastfeeding and then it was difficult and I learned so much and came out of it with so much determination to make it better for others - but that's not my story.
That's the story of so many lactation consultants - their personal challenges led them to this work. I would venture to say it is the origin story of MOST (non-scientific research, of course.)
But it's not mine. In fact, I did not really struggle. I did not really worry about things. I did not experience massive roadblocks. I did not set any goals for how long we would breastfeed. I did not spend a fortune on gadgets and tools and things to help my breastfeeding journey. My 3 experiences with breastfeeding each of my 3 daughters were different from each other, but fairly straightforward - even the first one, where I was a combo-feeder from the first night home from the hospital and fully weaned from the breast and my milk by about 4 months. My lactation experiences did not leave me traumatized or wracked by guilt.
So why I am I here? Why did I become a lactation consultant? Why do I care about this so much?
To me, the most important issue I can address is the history and future of commercial influence on lactation. I learned during my pregnancy with Alli how marketing influences had - unbeknownst to me - shaped my experience with my first daughter (doctors and the birth center influenced by formula marketing providing me with generous samples, coupons and glossy advertising for formula in every magazine I read, formula posters and branded office supplies in my OB's office, even a book on pregnancy and parenting which heavily emphasized the concept of feeding “choice” and gave false equivalence to the options). There are so many pieces in this pie of resolving why lactation has become so fraught - indeed, why lactation care is even needed. This is my piece.
Becoming a clinical instructor of lactation was a tremendous turning point for me as I began to realize how critical it would be for the next generation of lactation consultants to know this and to continue the work to fight it. I am watching the continuing evolution of the commercialization of lactation on social media in real time.
This is what fascinates and motivates me: how to ensure that the next generation of lactation care providers are well-informed about how commercial influences impact not only lactation itself, but the experience of lactation for individual mothers and parents, and that they are well-prepared to combat such influence in whatever form it may take. Make no mistake; we must be vigilant because the forces of economics, capitalism, and profiteering have a lot of money behind their efforts and they spare no expense to find new ways to grow those piles of money. Click the button below to read more about that.
read more from IBFAN's statement here
It is with this in mind that I approach every presentation I create, every blog post or podcast I produce, every social media post I put out into the world.
When I develop a presentation, I intentionally begin with an approach that requires no tools or devices, a focus on tactile and sensory techniques, and an emphasis on the absolute basics of physiology and human development.
I do this because I believe it is a necessary starting point. Before we can determine whether a tool or device is needed, we have to be able to see the underlying physiology, the root cause of the symptoms, the basis of the situation. We must insist that our training always holds us responsible to be wary of interventions, cautious and judicious about the use of tools, and aware that profit motives are out there.
That's not to say that interventions, tools, and devices are never needed or that we should be scared to apply them. It's about ensuring that the next generation of lactation care providers are thoroughly trained to be excellent at supporting lactation, including exhibiting wisdom and intention around the use of interventions; and that they are careful not to become part of the waves of commercial influence which tend to disrupt lactation attitudes and practices.
In today's landscape of social media quick-fixes for lactation issues, this has become increasingly important. A parent realizes they have a plugged duct, turns to social media for a short-term solution, and then returns to social media for more tips when that plugged duct recurs a week or so later. The quick fixes don't disrupt the recurrence; they only stave off the symptoms temporarily.
The purpose of what we do as lactation consultants is to be more than that: to personalize the care plan to address both the long-term and the short-term with real, science-based information. To go beyond lecithin supplements to finding out what's causing the recurrence of a symptom that represents inflammation at its root. To look beyond the nipple shield handed out in the hospital to figure out why the baby isn't staying latched. To listen beyond the parent's story of what they feel is happening for the gaps in information or misunderstandings that are impacting the lactation outcomes and the red flags that signal mental health concerns.
We can't be content to be as good as what people can find on social media. We aren't here to parrot short-term solutions like filling a silicone breast pump with warm saline water for a plugged duct or using a nipple shield to protect nipples against further damage. We have to be better. We have to be prepared to find everything that our client needs and set them up to succeed. We have to learn more, do more, and ultimately, teach the next generation everything we know and ask the questions they'll need to explore.
It all comes down to this: we are each in this work for a reason, and we came to it from vastly different perspectives. Hold that purpose close, no matter how it may be questioned by others. If your specialty is understanding the impact of ACES (adverse childhood experiences) on lactation, or researching medications and human milk, or finding the best ways to help babies latch after tongue tie revisions - YOU are the reason each of these things are tightly woven into the fabric of your lactation work. No matter where you are on your journey, YOU have tied the knot that will allow those threads to weave together over the years and impact and influence all the people who fall into your care. YOU hold the power to weave a satisfying and healthy lactation experience into the memory and life of another person.
Thank you for always coming back to join me on this learning journey,
Christine