GdV Lactation Services

IBCLC stands for International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

IBCLCs can do:

🤰🏻Prenatal consults. They can review your medical, surgical, and lactation history that may reveal risk factors for breastfeeding concerns.

🤱🏽 Postpartum consults. They can help with concerns related to latch, milk supply, pumping, and bottle feeding, whether your baby is full term or preterm.

👩🏼‍🍼 They can also advise on suppression in situations where you need or want to stop making milk.

Unfortunately, anyone can call themselves “Lactation Consultant,” but only those who meet training and education requirements AND passed the exam can call themselves IBCLC.

You can find an IBCLC near you:

👉🏽 ilca.org (Scroll to bottom for “Find a Lactation Consultant”)

👉🏽 Uslca.org (At top of page, under “Parents & Allies”)

Pregnancy loss unfortunately occurs more often than people talk about.

💔 15 in 100 of known pregnancies result in miscarriage (before 20 weeks gestation).
💔 1 in 100 pregnancies result in still birth (after 20 weeks gestation).
💔 As much as half of all pregnancies are estimated to result in pregnancy loss.

Pregnancy loss : loss of baby during pregnancy and at delivery
Miscarriage: loss of pregnancy before 20 weeks gestation
Still birth: loss of baby after 20 weeks gestation or during delivery

As a postpartum nurse and Lactation Consultant, I have taken care of women in the hospital after a loss.

Depending on how far along the pregnancy was, there are a few things we do to help families grieve:

🍃 Provide them time with their baby
🍃 Foot prints of their baby
🍃 Provide information about pumping and breastmilk donation

Having time with your baby, mementos, and donating your milk are just a few ways to help you process your grief.

Check out the websites below for more info. had a thoughtful post a while back worth checking out as well.

Resources:
👉🏽 https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/miscarriage.aspx
👉🏽 https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/stillbirth/features/pregnancy-infant-loss.html
👉🏽 https://mothersmilk.org/loss-of-your-baby/