I read all the posts with interest because I know that many BFCs are requested to give "the breastfeeding class" in prenatal courses.  
Maybe because I trained with NCT in the UK to be a BFC only two years after I completed my training in prenatal education, I have always considered breastfeeding to be an integral part of every stage of the prenatal course.
Early in the course when we discuss pregnancy and premature births, we talk about how early milk production starts and how the milk composition changes according to the gestation age e.g. milk produced by a mother who gives birth at 30 weeks is not the same milk she produces at 40 weeks and that is why it is so suitable for preemies and full-term babies.
Later in the course when we discuss the birth-place, the questionnaire I give each client for her hospital tour includes as many questions on the postnatal ward and the nursery as on the labour ward.
When I show films or show charts about the stages of birth, breastfeeding the baby immediately after the birth is an integral part of their preparation.
Then I spend one entire lesson on discussing breastfeeding in all its aspects, and because the clients have had breastfeeding on the agenda of every lesson so far, they have some really in-depth questions and issues.
At the end of the course when we talk about bringing the baby home and adjusting to parenthood, breastfeeding is again inseparable from other issues in  that discussion.

I think that the only way that there can be this continuum is if the BFC can sit down with the prenatal teacher from time to time and share information and ideas.  The training of prenatal teachers in NCT and in my own organization, the Israel Childbirth Education Centre, includes basic breastfeeding so that the teacher can continue her contact with the client after the birth.  But it is not sufficient to qualify the trainee as a BFC so it is important that if the prenatal teacher is not a qualified BFC she invites one to give this preparation in her course and that same BFC would be the person she refers the client to if there are more than routine problems after the birth.

This may sound very complicated but in NCT I was trained that prenatal education, breastfeeding support and postnatal counselling were equal sides of a triangle.  And it was this message I brought to Israel when we founded the Israeli organization.

Things have got very specialized now, but it would be interesting to know what percentage of BFCs  are also qualified prenatal teachers and how many prenatal teachers are qualified BFCs.

Sorry for the long spiel but I think that the pregnant woman meets so many different caregivers during her childbearing year that we need to consider continuity of care among our own counsellors.

Wendy Blumfield

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