LC: works M-Th from 8a-4p.

[DoomaYula]

Seriously, god help any woman who has a baby at our local hospital at 6pm on a Thursday evening. That really annoys me. I have no idea what our local bfing rate is, but I can say that our LLL meeting is only once a month and it's very small.

: :

[sweeetpea]

Yeah, the hospital closest to me has a "lactation specialist" (not counsultant) available M-F 8-5. I guess it's all those planned inductions and sections, babies aren't supposed to be born at night.

Another hospital nearby has Lactation "consultants" with longer hours, but with a strict protocol that almost every mom goes home with soft nipple shields. :Puke One very good LC I know had to quit working there because she wouldn't prescribe the soft shields, knowing the problems inherent with them. shheeesh.

Sad for your local mamas, our local mamas, all the local mamas, 'cause I don't think it is much better elsewhere. :

[jerawo]

Usually there is a LC on call, and you can request the oncall LC to come into the hospital. My friend who is a LC always gets annoyed when the nurses at her hospital tell moms there is no LC available, when the oncall LC is always available. Just something else moms have to be assertive about...

[khaoskat]

Originally Posted by YumaDoula

Seriously, god help any woman who has a baby at our local hospital at 6pm on a Thursday evening. That really annoys me. I have no idea what our local bfing rate is, but I can say that our LLL meeting is only once a month and it's very small.

: :

Where I live, we have 7 - 8 hospitals in about a 30 mile radius. Of those, only one offers afterhours and weekend bf'ing support. All the others offer M-F 9-5 type of setting.

Within the immediate city area we have 4 hospitals that do L&D. There is 1 south of town, 1 east of town, 1 northeast of town, and 1 north of town.

This is the reason we had so many bf'ing issues with my eldest. He was born the night before the LC left at 12:00 noon for medical leave.

Melissa S.

[DoomaYula]

Originally Posted by jerawo

Usually there is a LC on call, and you can request the oncall LC to come into the hospital. My friend who is a LC always gets annoyed when the nurses at her hospital tell moms there is no LC available, when the oncall LC is always available. Just something else moms have to be assertive about...

There is no on-call LC at our one local hospital. There is only one LC.

[Maggi315]

We have had that problem with our area hospitals for years. I applied a few years ago to cover the evenings and weekends, before I became a midwife and they weren't interested. Now I see that at least 2 of the hospitals have wised up a bit and have more coverage.

I think the best way to increase coverage is for the moms to write and complain. It's all driven by customer service, so the hospital needs to hear from the families...

[JessicaE]

Oh blah, that stinks. Will the LLL leaders help a mom at any time if she needs it? It's awful to put all that responsibility on volunteers, though.

My first son was born Dec. 26. I asked and asked for a LC, my midwife asked for a LC, and I asked and asked some more. They supposedly have one on call 24/7, and are supposedly a big BF-ing friendly hospital. The nurses said they were paging her, but she wasn't responding. Finally, I told them I wasn't leaving my room (after 40+ hours, when they wanted it for another mom) until they got me a LC. They finally got me one.

At one point, when I expressed my frustration, one of the nurses actually said, in all seriousness, "Well, I guess you shouldn't have had your baby on a holiday." :

[DoomaYula]

Originally Posted by JessicaE

At one point, when I expressed my frustration, one of the nurses actually said, in all seriousness, "Well, I guess you shouldn't have had your baby on a holiday." :

CLEARLY your fault, you holiday-birther! Don't you know the rules? Only babies born M-Th from 8a-4p have the right to be breastfed.

Actually that is kind of near to my heart: I had a grand multip whose first baby had been born the Wed before T'giving and she couldn't get anyone to help her bf... she ff'ed that baby and the next 5 babies.

[MamaRabbit]

At least you have access to LCs.

We have a total of TWO in the whole country. Both at the same hospital, and one of them is not really a great LC. (I should know... she totally was no help with DD1... couldn't recognize a simple problem... I don't get it.)

Anyway, so I guess I should rephrase and say there is ONE in the whole country. She's fabulous. She's trying to get other nurses to become LCs. Very little interest. There is no LLL here so basically, she's the only one. One person who also has to be the "go to" person for anything breastfeeding related, from baby-friendly hospital certifications to keeping an eye on Nestle.

I've done a little bit of "apprenticeship" with her and she wants me to become a LC, but how would I do that with little kids and nowhere to get in the hours : So I study up as much as I can and watch her. Hoping to do a lactation counselor certification when a decent one comes up.

So why do I put that here? I guess to commiserate? And at least you have some available at all.