Thank you to all of the many wonderful Lactnetters who have given lots of
good suggestions for training my postpartum doulas.

I want to make a small clarification on our program.  I am running a
nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to serving childbearing families.
Our flagship service, if one can call it that, is the eight free hours of
postpartum doula services for any family who requests them.  Additional
hours are available on a sliding scale fee basis.  We also offer prenatal
breastfeeding education, birth doula services, and direct referral to one
IBCLC and one homebirth midwife well-versed in breastfeeding, both of whom
are willing to work on a sliding scale.

I guess this clarification is just to say that we do not ever claim to be
breastfeeding experts.  My goal in the training is to let them know just
exactly how much they don't know, and how to spot situations when a referral
is absolutely essential to the breastfeeding relationship.  My goal is also
to train them to handle some of the more simple situations, so as not to
burden our generous LCs who are working on a sliding scale.

Believe me when I say that none of the doulas associated wiht my program are
claiming to be breastfeeding experts.  I have enormous respect for the
profession of lactation consultant, and send many referrals the way of the
IBCLC!!  As I said to someone in a private post, I am a breastfeeding
advocate, which means first and foremost admitting that I am not a
breastfeeding expert!  I can do well with the simple-to-fix situations, such
as adequate time at the breast or proper positioning, but when it comes to
more complicated matters, off they go to the LC!

In gratitude,
Jennifer Davis, ICCE-CD, CD(DONA)
Triangle Birth Network, Inc.
www.trianglebirthnetwork.org

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html