Programme for each day

Here are the full details of what happens in each day of the Breastfeeding Specialist Course.

STUDY DAY CONTENT

Each day (except the first and last study days) comprises:

  •  4 x 90-minute sessions 
  • A 30-minute final review with ten questions to test understanding of the day’s learning, followed by discussion.

    :

    • BECOMING AN IBCLC

    (COMPULSORY: You cannot miss the first study day.)

    • The role of the IBCLC
    • Becoming qualified (eligibility, costs, syllabus)
    • Study skills: strategies to help a busy person, and make it less scary!
    • Plenary: personal goals and planning
    • Ten questions to test recall, understanding and application of the day’s learning, followed by discussion

    POSITIONING AND ATTACHMENT

    • Teaching the theory and practicalities of good positioning and attachment to clients and colleagues through the use of hands-off techniques
    • Observing and assessing a feed in order to improve P&A
      Skills practice
    • Exploring nipple problems and nipple shields
    • Helping the baby who is reluctant to latch on

    PHILOSOPHIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

    • Kangaroo Mother Care, not just for premature babies
    • Postnatal depression, treatment options and breastfeeding
    • Two contrasting popular childcare philosophies and their impact on the breastfeeding families with whom we work
    • Breastfeeding and sexuality

    BEYOND THE NEWBORN PERIOD

    • Poor weight gain/not enough milk (double session lasts all morning)
    • Mastitis (blocked ducts, bacterial infections and thrush)
    • Breastfeeding beyond babyhood and strategies for ending breastfeeding

    COUNSELLING AND COMMUNICATION

    (This more than meets the IBLCE requirement for 5 hours education on communication.)

    • Adopting the counselling role when helping with infant feeding
    • Counselling skills: the basics
    • Counselling skills: putting it all together
    • Counselling strategies to suit the client’s stage of maternal role acquisition

    DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES

    • Combining work and breastfeeding
    • Breastfeeding after breast reduction surgery
    • Diabetes and lactation
    • The premature baby and breastfeeding

    GROUPS AND CLASSES

    • Creating, evaluating and maintaining successful groups
    • Teaching really useful antenatal breastfeeding classes
    • Writing plans for antenatal classes
    • Handling ‘heart-sink moments’ and challenging people in our groups

    ETHICAL ISSUES

    (This meets the IBLCE requirement for 2 hours education on the WHO Code.)

    • Ethical theories, principles, and implication for those who work in lactation
    • Initiatives that impact breastfeeding
    • Choice, influence, and responsibility in infant feeding
    • Ethical dilemmas in our everyday work

    • FAMILIES AND PEER SUPPORT

     

    • Peer Support: The Philosophy & Practicalities
    • Peer Support: The Benefits & the Challenges
    • The Breastfeeding Family: Fathers and Grandmothers
    • Induced Lactation for Non-Gestational & LGBT Parents

    CLINICS AND CONSULTATIONS

    • Running a specialist clinic
    • Consultations, both the common and the challenging
    • Doing the detective work / problem solving in a consultation
    • Consultations by telehealth, phone, email or for a fee

    FOOD AND NUTRITION

    • Obesity and infant feeding
    • Diet and breastfeeding
    • Allergies and the breastfeeding family
    • Introducing solid foods

    MOCK EXAM AND REVISION

     

      • The conduct of the IBLCE exam
      • Mock exam 
      • Scoring the mock exam 
      • Discussing the issues that arise from the exam 
      • Ways to tackle revision
      • Clinical pictures