Two of our IBCLCs, Ellen Chetwynd and Rebecca Costello, attended the North Carolina Lactation Consultant Association summit in Wilmington June 9-10 and helped teach a hands-on preconference workshop on breast massage and drainage. These techniques can help prevent and treat engorgement, plugged ducts, and mastitis – definitely things mamas want to avoid! Getting our LCs, nurses, midwives, and nurse practitioners trained on these techniques has made a big difference for so many of our WBWC mamas – we want to spread the knowledge! 

     A number of Wilmington mamas volunteered to be teaching models for over 30 IBCLCs from around the state who wanted to learn these vital skills. We were able to do hands-on demonstration and practice how to massage and hand express to relieve painful breast congestion. We got wonderful feedback from the participants, and we are so excited for them to bring this care back to the moms and babies they work with all over North Carolina. 

     The workshop was done in collaboration with Kathy Parry (one of our partners at Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute) and Lindsey Hurd (an IBCLC who also teaches our starting solids “Pass the Puree Please” class) – we are lucky to have such great colleagues!

     Ellen also presented at the Summit on new Medicaid regulations that will give more families access to lactation consultant care, and Rebecca presented on our partnership for the “Momma’s Village” project to increase support for breastfeeding among women of color. We are proud to represent WBWC and MILC to our IBCLC colleagues statewide!

     Looking to the future, we are hoping to plan a fun event around World Breastfeeding Week in August – stay tuned!

Your MILC IBCLCs,

Deborah AdlerNancy AlbrechtEllen ChetwyndRebecca CostelloElley Schopler

milc@ncbirthcenter.org


Follow this link for a great instructional video on breast massage and hand expression
https://vimeo.com/65196007