S/O: what lactation support do you have?

[Brie]

I feel very lucky. Our hospital has a great LC who did a 45 minute consult before we were discharged. Then, you get a home nurse visit 1-2 days later and she is also a LC who will check things out and answer questions. There is also an active weekly support group run by the hospital LC with free consults and weighted feeds. Plus, several of my PP nurses had lactation training or their LC cert and would help with feeds in the hospital.

Our pedi also has an LC on staff and if you are BFing they automatically schedule a consult with her at your first appointment. They also have a weekly lactation support group.

All of this cost me $0.

Anyway, I see posts on here about paying $$$ for LCs and I'm curious. What kind of support is/was available to you?

[marclovesme]

Hospital LC saw me a day after birth. She was terrible. Follow up visit 2 days after discharge with another hospital LC. Again, terrible. Neither gave me any advice other than to say "good job," even though I was struggling with production and keeping baby awake. This was the only support available at my hospital.

Paid to see an LC on staff at a nearby pedi and the experience was incredible. Excellent support, actually answered my questions, gave tons of advice and recommendations that helped turn things around. After visit one about a week after birth they had little hope for me. During our second visit a month later they were amazed at how well BF had been established and how I'd turned things around with production (thank you pumping and domperidone).

I wanted to go to LLL, but they only met at night and during nap time.

[fortmyersbride]

Not sure about the first hospital I delivered at. I didn't request one, but one did stop by my room to say hi.

The second hospital I delivered at had free LC services for the first 6 wks. I had a phone consult to help diagnose DD's tongue tie, but never went in for a formal consult.

[Deleted]

The hospital has LC, but I never saw her despite requesting her. They're way overworked.

The home nurse visits have some lactation experience but are not ILCBC or anything. They checked on us 2 or 3 times after we were home (came and did weight checks, checked my beat up vag, made sure I was doing okay).

There is a Breastfeeding Center where I could have accessed LC by appointment for free. I didn't need them, so I never did.

I also attended the drop in group at that center and LLL meetings for free. Really, most of it is there, but the hospital was disappointing to me.

[h]

I saw the hospital LCs a couple times with DS1 while I was still in the hospital. They were super nice and helpful. They have a hotline you can call with questions after being released, and they called to check on me every few days at first, then every few weeks, then every few months. (When they called me when DS1 turned one and I reported that we were still nursing, the woman on the phone called out "I have a mama still nursing at 12 months!" and everyone in the office cheered for me, which made me feel really awesome.) Our pediatrician's office now has an LC on staff, but she wasn't there when DS1 was a baby.

[Mrs.Syntax]

The hospital where I had DD had two LCs on staff. They were free while I was a patient but I had to pay to visit them after I was discharged. They weren't that helpful, like another poster, they just said "You're doing fine" although there was clearly something wrong because it hurt terribly, something was off with DD's latch, and I was having problems with an overactive letdown. They literally had no advice for that.

The hospital also had a BFing hotline where you could call these two LCs for help, but it always went to voicemail and they'd only return calls half the time. The other half of the time, they returned calls 1-2 days later. They must have been swamped with work.

[justjen]

Hospital had LCs that came around while I was there, and a support hotline for when you're discharged.

But the best part is the weekly support group run by a LC. I loved that group. I got so much good information and support. I did wind up paying for a private consult with the group leader. It was great because I would then see her every week and could ask follow up questions at the meetings. It was just so helpful. I'm really going to miss it now that I'm going back to work.

[Deleted]

My hospital has a big lactation department, one of the best around. Everyone who is breastfeeding gets an LC the day after baby's birth and they will come back to help you if you call. I saw the same LC twice in the hospital and she was awesome. By chance, we got one who was a friend of our neighbors/good friends and she gave me her home and cell numbers to call directly if I ever needed to (luckily I did not).

They also have a breastfeeding support line that you can call with questions and an LC will call you back. There are support groups led by LCs too. Both of these are free. If you go in for a private consult there is a fee but it's not bad--$80 or so.

Edit: The PP nurses all were good at helping with breastfeeding issues as well, but I don't know about their specific training.

[hilwithonelary]

My hospital had IBCLCs (did I put those letters in the right order?) available upon request. They wouldn't come immediately, but they would make rounds once a day.

For DS, the hospital's LCs were available by phone for free. They called unprompted several times up to 6 weeks to check in.

When I had DD, the hospital had recently opened a breastfeeding clinic staffed by IBCLCs. On Monday - Friday, from 1:00-3:00, you could walk in. It was free if you delivered with them. If you delivered somewhere else, there was a minimal one time fee. Sometimes it was packed and you had to wait, but usually you could get right in. They had scales to do weighed feedings and lots of comfy couches and chairs. I visited it 6 or 7 times. It was very helpful.

[minzy]

Oct 23, 2012 20:14:09 GMT -5 h said:

I saw the hospital LCs a couple times with DS1 while I was still in the hospital. They were super nice and helpful. They have a hotline you can call with questions after being released, and they called to check on me every few days at first, then every few weeks, then every few months. (When they called me when DS1 turned one and I reported that we were still nursing, the woman on the phone called out "I have a mama still nursing at 12 months!" and everyone in the office cheered for me, which made me feel really awesome.) Our pediatrician's office now has an LC on staff, but she wasn't there when DS1 was a baby.

:Y:

There was a consultant at the hospital who kept trying to visit us, but she came at inconvenient times, so I saw her for maybe five minutes. We got the hang of things pretty quickly without issue (or maybe I've been doing it wrong this whole time!), so I have not sought out any additional support.

[arch01]

We had LCs in the hospital but often by the time they got there after you called, you'd be done feeding. They were super slow.

After, we went several times and paid $60/visit. Those costs were pretty hard to stomach, honestly... but we needed to do them for weighed feeds.

[Redpoppy]

The LC at the hospital I gave birth at wasn't very good. Basically shoved DS on breast, said good job, and walked away. He'd then promptly unlatch and start screaming. She did set me up with a hospital pump rental covered by insurance though. The day after we were discharged we were sent to ER because I couldn't get DS to wake to eat for over 12 hours, even a bottle. Turns out his latch sucked, he had a bit of tongue tie, and I wasn't really producing milk yet. We stayed overnight at that hospital and the LCs there were great.

That hospital had breastfeeding support group every weekday run by LCs that would consult and do weighted feeds for anyone that came. If you needed more support than they could give in the group, the lactation clinic took appointments by referral from pediatricians. They only billed insurance, no deductible or copay. If you didn't have insurance or coverage they write it off. If I were to have another child (not planning to) I would switch to that hospital.

[Deleted]

Our hospital had several LCs on staff. I met with two while in the hospital after the c-section (one to help with latch etc, and one to follow-up before discharge). There is also a weekly BFing support group run by a lactation consultant with weighted feeds etc, but I never went. I am not sure what else was available to me as I (thankfully) had very little issues, once my nipples toughened up lol.

[gibbinator]

Quite similar to your experience. The pp nurses all had lactation training to get you started. If you had any latch troubles or other concerns you could ask for the hospital lactation consultant to visit you during your hospital stay.

Once home, a public health nurse will visit you at home within a week and she has training as well. You can call her back anytime

There's a 24hr nurses hotline in my province that you can call for advice (whether it be immediate questions or for info on resources).

You can set up an appt with the LC anytime as well but you have to drive to her.

There aren't really any support groups nearby (nearest LLL is 100km away) but they're looking to set one up this year closer to my town.

All free through provincial health care

[karinothing]

wow Brie! That is awesome for a US hospital.

I didn't give birth in a hospital, but my midwives/birth assistant help to establish proper lactaction before dischage. They then offer 2 home visits on day 2 and 3 to make sure everything is going okay.

Our pediatrician has a lacation department, which like a number of LCs on staff.

[mrshandy]

I had something similar to you Brie. They had a LC at the hospital. Of course, I delivered on a Sunday morning which is the one day that the LC is not in. But I got to see her the next day. The nurses were pretty good with helping me.

Our pedi had a LC on staff that was absolutely wonderful. I met with her a few days after DS was born and she sat with me for a hour asking me lots of questions and answering all my questions. It was amazing and so reassuring. She looked at my latch and gave me pointers on keeping his feeding sessions from going 1+ hours.

[londoncalling]

The hospital has 4 IBCLCs on staff and they round twice a day for nursing moms. They were helpful and very patient, but not every breastfeeding scenario arises in the 2 days you are at the hospital, so their advice was limited. They run a free breastfeeding meeting every other week and offer weighed feedings during that time.

My pediatrician has 6 peds that are IBCLCs and they also have 5 more IBCLCs on staff at their related Breastfeeding Center. So when I took DD in for her 4 day check up, I was just scheduled with one of those pediatricians and she and I both were evaluated. I had to pay my copay for a specialty visit, but DD was free. They saved breastfeeding for me twice. I love them!

[Deleted]

I was visited by the staff LC once every day I was in the hospital (aside from the first day when I was pretty much in an induced coma). She was the same woman who taught the BF class we took. I loved her - very encouraging even though I was really struggling. She also came in to visit right before we were discharged to bow before me because my DD had gained 5 ounces overnight and was within an ounce of her birthweight. That made me feel great. The PP nurses also were trained and helpful, but sometimes gave me conflicting info.

The health system in which I delivered has a number of BF support groups at the various hospitals within the system. They are free if you delivered at a hospital in the system. There are also warm lines you can call.

My cousin is a PP nurse and has a lactation specialist cert, so she has been a huge resource for me. I text her constantly. lol She is wonderful and visited me the second day I was home from the hospital when I was really struggling. If I didn't have her, I would have reached out to a LC.

[Ashley&Scott]

We had LCs rounding in the hospital & my recovery nurses were helpful as well. (to clarify, not every nurse & LC was awesome, but there enough good ones to get me on the right track)

Out patient LC consults are free & easy to schedule, they also have a help line to answer questions.

There are breastfeeding support groups at the local hospitals, 2 hospitals have them weekly & 1 hospital has bi-weekly meetings. All are free & LCs attend to help/answer questions.

My pedi's office does not have LC support that I'm aware of. Our previous pedi didn't either.

I think our local LLL has weekly meetings, I've never been though.