There was a sad scene when my first son was 10 weeks old.

I spent the day crying, desperately working my way through the breastfeeding support list I was given on discharge from hospital and finding everything out of date or incorrect.

I’m not even sure now how it was arranged but a breastfeeding counsellor from NCT arrived the next day on a bike and solved my problems with a few tweaks.

At that point I was inspired to become a lactation consultant.

Volunteering:

I first became a breastfeeding counsellor by training with a National Breastfeeding charity, who placed me in children’s centres in Lambeth. I was lucky enough to work supporting the specialist midwife-led team so I got to support the more complex cases such as twins, with lots of returning families which was great for my learning.

I also volunteered on the postnatal ward at the hospital which I loved. It was such valuable experience and I loved never knowing who I would meet.

Lactation Consultant Training:

I completed more than 130 hours advanced training in breastfeeding and lactation (minimum required 90) , logged 1,000 hours working with breastfeeding mothers & babies and completed a 4 hour exam.

Partly this was done over a year with the Breastfeeding London Course where I enjoyed my cohort of professionals ranging from NICU nurses and SALT to Doulas and a baby-wearing consultant.

I studied my exam with an excellent group from LCGB. There were several famous names in lactation doing 10 or even 20 year re-sits on the cohort so I found our study groups invaluable.

Private Lactation Consultant Business:

I started my own business providing lactation consultant home visits in South East and Central London, Baby-Thrive.com.

My voluntary, weekly breastfeeding support cafe is a lovely way to keep in touch with my clients, I also find it very helpful for my own learning to know their long term outcomes.

Would you would like me to visit you at home to support you caring for your baby? Please see the home visits info (here).

Sally