Services for health professionals

baby with books
Cathy Garbin provides education/updates for health professionals working with breastfeeding families. During her time working as a research associate with the Hartmann Human Lactation Research Group at The University of Western Australia she developed a deep knowledge in all aspects of lactation. This knowledge ensures a strong focus on providing research based information and techniques.

Workshops provide:

  • Professional and productivity development of staff
    • Each workshop is created in collaboration with the participants, ensuring all needs are met.
  • Certified education related points (CERP) from the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners.
  • Participant notes.
  • Team building.
  • Continuing email/telephone support access for workshop participants.

All health professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapist, speech pathologists, dieticians, doctors, pharmacists, counsellors, educators etc) are encouraged to attend so a collaborative, holistic, inclusive approach to breastfeeding can be achieved.

Previous international lactation conference presentations:

2006 Hale Hartmann Conference: Richmond, Virginia USA

2006 Stockholm, Sweden

2006 Basel, Switzerland

2010 Anger, France

Presentations:

“Teaching Mothers to Breastfeed”

Firstly lets look at the research to see what “normal” breastfeeding looks like. Knowing the wide range of what is “normal” in lactation highlights just how individual each breastfeeding relationship is. We will look at differences in fat content before and after feeds and see how individual this is, average feeding times and volumes, how breastfeeding changes over time and much more. It helps us to think outside of the square and reduces the plethora of conflicting advice new mothers often suffer. It also helps mothers to develop realistic expectations of the breastfeeding relationship. We know when expectations meet reality that successful breastfeeding more likely follows. By focusing on the “normal”, the abnormal can be recognized early, ensuring that timely assistance and support follow.

“A Systematic Approach to Breastfeeding Assessment”

There are four key areas that interplay in the breastfeeding relationship. This presentation describes these 4 key elements, so when you are assessing mothers and babies with breastfeeding difficulties this systematic approach will help you to prioritise the areas of concern. At the same time it ensures you continue to consider all key elements in the complex breastfeeding relationship.

“Nipple Piercing- a hole in milk production”

This case study was published in JAMA 2009. Nipple piercing has always been thought to not damage the breastfeeding relationship. In this presentation we take an opportunity to firstly revise the anatomy of the lactating breast. We then go on to look at the research data collected from 3 breastfeeding mothers that presented with breastfeeding problems showing how milk production and mammary blood flow was affected by scarring from the nipple piercing.

“Evidence of Improved Milk Production After Frenotomy”

This case report was published in Pediatrics in November 2013, a journal that serves the general medical profession as well as paediatricians. This report convincingly illustrates to those in a position to perform frenotomy, that tongue tie is indeed difficult to diagnose and that the 24-hour milk production profiles, along with ultrasound and other physiological measurements pre and post frenotomy showed a dramatic improvement in breastfeeding. The 24-hour milk production profile has many uses in helping the breastfeeding family attain their breastfeeding goals.

 “Using 24-hour Milk Production Profile in Clinical Practice”

24-hour Milk Production Profiles were originally used in the research setting to accurately measure a mother’s milk production over a 24-hour period. This simple easy-to-use tool is extremely useful also to the lactation consultant and other health professionals in the clinical setting. Recent research has shown that the 24-hour milk profile increases maternal breastfeeding confidence; this allays previous concerns to the contrary.

This presentation illustrates how this tool helps with diagnosing, treating, managing and monitoring a number of breastfeeding difficulties.

“Expressing Breastmilk”

From research we know most mothers today want to access the option to express their breastmilk, for a multitude of reasons. More importantly we know a mother with a milk supply problem or sore nipples/ breasts needs this option to continue breastfeeding. In this presentation we look at the research surrounding expressing breastmilk so that we can provide mothers with the best research-based information enabling them to express in the most effective way to suit their situation.

“Simultaneous verses Sequential Expressing”

Low milk supply is the most commonly sited breastfeeding problem. Providing mothers with accurate evidenced-based information gives them the best opportunity to overcome this difficult problem. In this study we hypothosised that expressing 2 breasts simultaneously produced more milk than expressing each breast sequentially. This presentation takes you through the process of the study and reveals other information we discovered.

“Common Breastfeeding Problems”

In this presentation we look at the most common breastfeeding problems and discuss the best evidence-based information available to help overcome the problems.

“Confused about Nipple Confusion?”

Lets look at all the evidence on nipple confusion, and try and untangle how and why it might occur. Are there other reasons for babies not wanting to breastfeed after having used a bottle other than “nipple confusion”? This presentation then illustrates how we as lactation consultants can guide care to help prevent and manage this situation.

note: presentations on other topics are available on request

Ring Cathy 0407778183 to discuss your needs and the packages available

3/4 hour presentations plus 15 minutes discussion

1/2 day workshops

1 or 2 day workshops

Breastfeeding Education References:

Anderson E, Geden E. Nurse’s knowledge of breastfeeding. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs.1991;20:58-64

Crowder DS. Maternity nurses knowledge of factors promoting successful breastfeeding. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs.1981;10:28-30

Hayes B. Inconsistencies among nurses in breastfeeding knowledge and counseling. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs.1981;10:430-433

Freed G. National assessment of physician’s breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, training and experience. JAMA.1995;273:472-476

Howard CR, Schaffer SJ, Lawrence RA. Attitides, practices and recommendations by obstetricians about infant feeding. Birth 1997;24:240-252

Moran VH, Bramwell R, Dykes F, Dinwoodie K. An evaluation of skills acquisition on the WHO/UNICEF Breastfeeding Management Course using the pre-validated Breastfeeding Support Skills Tool (BeSST). Midwifery.
2000:16:197-203

Vittoz JP, Labarere J, Castell M, Durand M, Pons JC. Effect of a training program for maternity ward professionals on duration of breastfeeding. Birth, 2004;31:302-307

Brodribb W, Fallon A, Jackson C, Hegney D. Breastfeeding and Australian GP registrars–their knowledge and attitudes. Journal of Human Lactation. 2008 Nov;24(4):422-30. PubMed PMID: 18974291. Epub 2008/11/01. eng.

Amir L, Ingram J. Health professionals’ advice for breastfeeding problems: Not good enough! International Breastfeeding Journal. 2008;3(1):22. PubMed PMID: doi:10.1186/1746-4358-3-22.

Binns CW, Scott JA. Breastfeeding: reasons for starting, reasons for stopping and problems along the way. Breastfeed Rev. 2002 Jul;10(2):13-9. PubMed PMID: 12227559.

Holmes AV, McLeod AY, Thesing C, Kramer S, Howard CR. Physician breastfeeding education leads to practice changes and improved clinical outcomes. Breastfeed Med. 2012 Dec;7(6):403-8. PubMed PMID: 23046226. Epub 2012/10/11. eng.

Kronborg H, Maimburg RD, Vaeth M. Antenatal training to improve breast feeding: a randomised trial. Midwifery. 2012 Dec;28(6):784-90. PubMed PMID: 22018394. Epub 2011/10/25. eng.

O’Brien ML, Buikstra E, Fallon T, Hegney D. Strategies for success: a toolbox of coping strategies used by breastfeeding women. J Clin Nurs. 2009 Jun;18(11):1574-82. PubMed PMID: 19220615. Epub 2009/02/18. eng.

Rempel LA, Rempel JK. The breastfeeding team: the role of involved fathers in the breastfeeding family. J Hum Lact. 2011 May;27(2):115-21. PubMed PMID: 21173422. Epub 2010/12/22. eng.

Taveras EM, Li R, Grummer-Strawn L, Richardson M, Marshall R, Rego VH, et al. Opinions and practices of clinicians associated with continuation of exclusive breastfeeding. Pediatrics. 2004 Apr;113(4):e283-90. PubMed PMID: 15060254. Epub 2004/04/03. eng.