By Rebecca Costello, IBCLC
If you come to our breastfeeding classes, lactation visits, or breastfeeding cafes, you may notice we often have students shadowing our work and occasionally even helping with visits. (Although students are never present in a visit without receiving the patient’s permission first!) We are proud to participate in WBWC’s tradition of training the next generation of care providers – but where do our students come from?
The main group of students you see with us are participating in the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative through UNC-Chapel Hill. This program trains students and prepares them to sit for the exam to become International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs). As part of their training, they must complete hundreds of clinical training hours. WBWC is one of the sites where they learn from IBCLC mentors. Our staff also provides occasional lectures or teaching workshops as part of the students’ classroom learning. (The program is named after one of its founders, Mary Rose Tully, who was the first director of lactation services at UNC Hospitals and was a local and national leader in breastfeeding support.)
We also have shadowers from a variety of clinical fields. A number of medical students and residents ask to do elective rotations with us, because they want more dedicated time to focus on lactation than they typically get in medical school and residency. And several pediatricians and family medicine physicians have spent time with us to hone their breastfeeding support skills and to prepare for the IBCLC exam. Speech language pathologists, nursing students, and doulas have also all spent time with us to supplement their training – they interact with breastfeeding in different ways, but all have a desire to learn more.
Finally, we have shadowers from inside WBWC! Many of the nurse-midwifery and nurse-practitioner students who train here ask to spend time with the IBCLCs, to get a better sense of our work. And of course, all of our newly hired nurses, nurse-midwives, and nurse practitioners shadow our IBCLCs as part of their orientation. We work in a team here, so spending time getting to know each other and how we work is very important!
Keep in mind that there is never an obligation to have a student at your visit. On the contrary, if you don’t feel comfortable with a student at your visit, we WANT you to decline so that you can have the most comfortable and helpful visit possible. We appreciate your honesty, and you teach our students that the patient’s needs always come first. For those patients who have been able to allow our students and shadowers to be part of your visits, thank you too! You are helping others learn to provide optimal breastfeeding care. The ripple effects of that learning are powerful, as those providers go on to provide breastfeeding support to thousands of other families over their careers.