Hello All! I am newish to Lactnet and very new to the world of computers, so please forgive me if I make mistakes with the lingo, etc.! Most days, I just feel lucky I can get the computer on :-)
A brief intro. I am an IBCLC (no other initials) in San Francisco, retired LLLL, mother of two happily breastfed boys now 5 and 9. I thought i would also respond about what hospital based LC's do.
I was interested in another post that spoke of a hospital that did about 7000 births a year, because that is what I am told we do.
We have both inpatient and outpatient services. The outpatient clinic is open 6 days and we have LC's in the hospital 7 days a week. I was just told that they are tyring to put in a budget request for 3 LC's inpatient and 3 outpaitent - full time. Right now we have an LC in the hospital every day for one shift and somedays, we have two. Often, there are requests for more consults than we can do. We average about 9 consults per shift. On "Labor Day" we had two LC's on and saw 19 moms! (i worked a 10 hour day that day!) We have a small office, we wear pagers and have a written referral request system. We do not see babies under 24 hours old. We can see moms and babies in the NICU and TCN. Sometimes we go over to our other campus, where pediatrics is (if a baby has been readmitted, they sometimes go there, sometimes NICU). We orient new hire nurses, train new LC's (we have two new CLC's now who are in the Blueprint for progress program thru the breastfeeding support consultants and they will be doing some other training with another IBCLC) and do some teaching with nurses, including skills days. We have been requested to mini inservices with the postpartum nurses, at chift change on a variety of topics.
Most of us work both in and out patient. We usually have 2 LC's outpatient, per day. We all work part time anywhere from 1 1/2 days to 4. There are currently 6 LC's and two CLC's in training on the staff. The phone rings all day in the clinic, there are walk ins to our store, we see around 4 consults outpatient a day, per LC, (it varies) and we do a tremendous amount of follow up and phone helping. Some of us teach the BF class, facilitate BF support groups 2 times a week, facilitate a BF support group in the hospital for moms and babies during their stay 3 times a week and generally run around trying to do it all! We are also starting a weekly BF support group for the NICU moms. It can be fun and exhausting. We have a wonderful group of LC's here and we do a good job, I think!! We have a rather high end clientel, for the most part, and they can be quite demanding. BTW the epidural rate at the hospital is around 70%. We see lots of swollen moms!! Also, lots of twins and triplets. If anyone is interested in relocating to San Francisco, email me privately!!!
Thanks to all who have posted to this list, i have found lots of helpful info in the archives.
Love to all,
Lanie Jewell, IBCLC
San Francisco, CA USA
Mom to Zander and Harrison
Waiting for the fog to clear on my day off
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