The Power of a Lactation Consultant on Your Birth Team (Even If You’re Not Breastfeeding)

Breastfeeding (or not breastfeeding) is one of the most personal choices you’ll make as a mother and one of the most challenging parts of the postpartum journey for many women.

In this episode of Birthing in Faith, I’m breaking down why a lactation consultant is such an important member of your birth and postpartum team, even if you’re unsure about breastfeeding, planning to formula feed, or somewhere in between.

From navigating latching issues and milk supply struggles to offering judgment-free education and support, lactation consultants are here to empower you through one of the most vulnerable parts of early motherhood.

We’ll talk about:
 ✅ What a lactation consultant actually does (and doesn’t do)
 ✅ The benefits of having one before and after birth
 ✅ How they can support women who choose not to breastfeed
 ✅ How to find the right lactation consultant for you
 ✅ Tips for using insurance to cover lactation support
 ✅ Why this role is about more than milk — it’s about confidence

Whether you’re planning to breastfeed, pump, formula feed, or a combination, this conversation will help you feel prepared and supported in your choices.

Grab your own copy of The Confident Birth Factor today! This guide will make it plain and clear who to have on your dream birth team and how to set it up. Your birth plan doesn't matter if you don't have the right team in place - don't leave it up to chance! Use coupon code BIF2025 for 15% off! --> Buy now!

Transcript

0:09

Hello, beautiful people. This is Birthing In Faith, a podcast for black Christian women. I am your host, Imani Fitch. I'm so happy that you're here. Thank you for coming in and listening and joining us for this conversation. I am getting back into the conversation about building your birth team, and we are talking today. Um, about this specific person in the birth team because I think it is so important and I really don't think it gets enough attention. Um, most people have heard of the term, but they don't know exactly what they do. We are talking about. Lactation consultant. Okay, so first of all, I will, uh, go ahead and be honest and say, before I started working in labor delivery, I did not know what a lactation consultant was. I didn't know what a lactation consultant did. I didn't know anyone that had used a lactation consultant. Uh, so once I started working in labor delivery, I had to learn from the lactation consultant. I had to round for, I think it was like a week. No, maybe it was three shifts, which is actually, that is a week. But, um, there were about three shifts that I had to do with the lactation consultant in the hospital to get an idea of their role, and I learned from them. And so I am so like big on the benefits of a lactation consultant for mothers. And on top of that, it was after. I started working in delivery, but I started to connect with more lactation consultants that work outside of the hospital and got even more information about the amazing things that they do. So I'm gonna put y'all on game and let you know where you might have been missing out on some amazing benefits from getting that type of support and their specific training and expertise. Okay. So first of all, what a lactation does is. Focus primarily on infant feeding. Now, you may have heard them referred to when we're talking about breastfeeding. Yes, they are. Definitely well versed and well knowledgeable on the role of breastfeeding and especially in the hospital. You want to have a lactation consultant come by and see you after you have your baby. If you're planning to breastfeed because they help you with the latch. They help you hold the baby, see how they're, um, how they're bonding. With and bringing on the connection so that more breast milk can be produced. Um, they are assessing your nipples, looking to see if you have colostrum coming. Um, they are telling you how often to feed your baby, to make sure that they're fed, um, they're supporting you with when they're gassy or, uh, you know, if they're not opening their mouth enough, how to hold your baby so that you can be comfortable while you're breastfeeding because. It is a lot when it comes to breastfeeding and a lot of times we choose to be uncomfortable so that the baby can be in the right position. Lactation consultant's gonna show you how to be in the right position so that you're comfortable and the baby's comfortable. I think a lot of us assume that breastfeeding is natural, therefore breastfeeding is easy, and that is the absolute furthest thing from the truth. Breastfeeding is natural. Yes. Breastfeeding is a full-time job. Absolutely. It is hard work for the mom. It's hard work for the baby. Everyone is coming together for the first time. Even if you've breastfed before, this child is doing it for the first time and is learning how to do it. Your body's learning how to produce for that baby's needs, so the lactation consultant comes and helps and assesses and sees. Where are you Things going well, where do you need more support? Also, the lactation consultant is gonna help you with pumping. If you decide to pump, which a lot of moms decide to pump and breastfeed. A lot of moms are going back to work and need to be able to pump so that their baby can have breast milk when they're away. Um. So a lactation consultant is gonna teach you how to use a pump, how to store the breast milk, how to thaw it, um, how to ensure that your, your, uh, supply is coming in and that you're able to get an adequate supply. But also when you're breastfeeding, you don't want to lose the latch you have from breastfeeding because you're also bottle feeding. Lactation consultant helps to make sure that baby is wanting your nipples and wanting the, the bottle nipples. I know for me we had a lactation consultant probably day one of birth. My baby did not latch very well at first. Um, and. It was very painful experience for me. I already knew that breastfeeding, yes, can be uncomfortable, but it should not be painful. So I knew, hey, I need to get a lactation consultant on board to see how we can make sure this process is going well so we can have a good breastfeeding experience. I know so many women have suffered through breastfeeding because of painful bleeding, cracking nipples. I know several people that have suffered. For months before asking for help and I wanted to learn from that experience. Also, a lot of women, it, they come into this place where they're not able to breastfeed. Their baby doesn't latch or no milk comes out. You know, people will say my milk never came in. Um, and I know everybody's situation is different. I know this is a very touchy subject as well because the breastfeeding experience is something that so many women desire, but it doesn't look exactly how. They wanted to look and they end up deciding to go to formula, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. And for me, my baby had a lip tie and a tongue tie, which w that was really what made our breastfeeding experience so hard at first. And we worked through it. We went forward with the procedure to remove the lip tie and the tongue tie. And then our breastfeeding experience was drastically different. And um, I've come to learn that a lot of women. Have decided to stop breastfeeding because of pain or latch or milk not coming in. But they never got an assessment from a laxation consultant. Um, and it's likely impossible that it could have just been a lip tie or a tongue tie that was preventing it from the, that was preventing the latch from being just good enough so that milk could continue to come. Y'all. Yeah, this person, this lactation consultant, is such, so critical to at least have assess your baby and you to make sure that this process of breastfeeding, if that is your goal, go as smoothly as possible. I will say that for the women who were unable to breastfeed for that, um, reason. Your journey is your journey, and it was what it was, and it'll be what it will be for a reason. So I, I pray that you do not regret your experience and still I want you to hear that there is help out there. And so if you have encountered anyone else, if there's family members, friends who are expecting, um, and wanting to breastfeed and you say, oh, I wasn't able to breastfeed because my milk didn't come in. I challenge you with that verbiage and with that, um, that knowledge that you might be sharing or that experience you might be sharing and also add, Hey, but I heard about this lactation consultant is the type of person that can help with this. I wish I knew that information. You know, um, I think that it's important to tell your story. It's important to share your experience that is part of the collective and the, the village experience that we all should have. And there can also be encouragement to experience something different than yours if that is what your friend, your family member desires. Yeah. So you might be thinking right now, well what if I don't want to breastfeed? What if I've had a traumatic experience where I do not, um. Desire or it would be, it would be damaging, it would be harmful. It would be, it would not be in my best interest to breastfeed or I just don't wanna breastfeed. That is something I've never been interested in. Or I take medication that prevents me from breastfeeding. Um, lactation consultant is still valuable for you because they are equipped to help you stop your milk from coming in. A lot of women start, uh. Creating colostrum, um, before their baby's even born. They might even be leaking milk before your baby, the baby's born. When your goal is to formula feed, a lactation consultant is still such a valuable part of your team to help you dry up your supply and to teach you how to properly formula feed. Again, infant feeding might seem like it's natural, it might seem like it's common sense, but there are a lot of things that are not, um, standard knowledge, especially if you're coming from. N never having taken a care of a baby, which so much of us are as first time moms, we, we weren't taking care of children. We were doing our own thing. So we have no knowledge of how much a baby should eat, when, when is too much, when is enough, how to properly, um, mix formula. How to choose a formula that is best suited for my baby because a lot of people are allergic. Sorry, a lot of babies are allergic to, um. The milk that is in formula, so you might need a sensitive uh formula. You might need a goat milk formula. Soy formula, there's different types of formulas and they have different ways to, to mix them together and formulate them. The lactation consultant can absolutely help you with that. Um, going back to breastfeeding or breast milk, if you are a woman that has a oversupply, a lactation consultant can teach you how to decrease your supply in a way that will not cause you to have these hormone fluctuations that will throw your body completely off. And if you are. Also an over supplier. They can point you in a direction where you can donate your breast milk or there are ways you can sell it. They might be able to help you with that. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that one, but I do know that they can help you navigate what to do when you have too much milk at the same time when someone is just a, just enougher, that's what we call it. Um, basically you make just enough milk for your baby to breastfeed. You're not pumping and creating a stash. A lactation consultant is gonna be the one that is going to help you know that you are doing enough. I'm telling you, there is such a mental play at work, aside from the physical when it comes to breastfeeding and having that extra voice that is a specialist in that area has seen so many different women experience, it can give you that encouragement and reassurance that is just. Life changing. Honestly, I can tell you with my lactation consultant, first of all, she made house calls. I think the first visit we went to the office, and then after that she came to our house and we saw her about eight times. Do you know how much of a relief that was to be able to stay home, have someone come in, assess us in our normal habitat, in our normal rhythm? And to also tell me, Hey, is my baby getting enough? Can you look and see how I'm latching? In order to know if my daughter was taking enough milk in at a time, we did weights. Before she ate, I would breastfeed and she would assess and give feedback, encouragement, support, and then we would weigh her again afterwards and we could see exactly how many ounces she took, and then that would give me the rea reassurance that I needed to know that she was getting enough. As a mom, one of the biggest. Things that you might freak out about is, is my baby getting enough? And you can be told, yeah, as long as they're peeing and pooping X amount, that means they're getting enough. Cool, cool, cool. But something in me is still unsure. Something in me is like, what's going on? What? And I was talking with a mom just last week who told me I went from breastfeeding to exclusively pumping because I was so anxious about whether or not my child was getting enough milk that I would wanted to be able to measure it to make sure he was getting enough. Do you see how doing it on your own, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with what she did or how she did it, but she was, um. Not her words, but I'll say my words, um, for that to describe that situation is that she was anxious about her baby not getting enough, and she felt better if she could control it in a way that she knew how much was going in every time. But I just wonder if she would've had the professional support of someone coming in weighing her baby before and after telling her, Hey, when. Your baby got enough this time? Yes, you can see that your baby is calm and satisfied. Yes, you can see that there are pees and poops, but also we weighed your baby and we saw your, your baby got more than, than you probably think that they did. I just wonder how much her experience might have been different if she would've had that support and that handholding, that reassurance that every mom needs to know that you're doing the right thing. I'm telling y'all. A lactation consultant is such a great voice to hear that from. So there are different varieties of types of support you can get in this area. As far as a lactation consultant, the highest, I guess, ranking we could call it, or the most, um, rigorous type of training or certification that there is. It's called an I-B-C-L-C. Then there are also CLCs and there's also infants. Feeding specialists. There are a couple different other names that can be used, um, to describe someone who is trained in the art of baby feeding. Um, so now y'all know all these ways that a lactation consultant can support you in your baby feeding journey. That's great. Right? But how do you get one? There are many ways. First, I will say, usually if you're giving birth in a hospital, they will have lactation consultants available in hospital to see you. But I will absolutely say there's a caveat there because every hospital is different, and a lot of hospitals only have lactation consultants Monday through Friday during the day. So if you have your baby Friday night. And you get discharged on Sunday, you may not have a lactation consultant available to come see you, um, before discharge. And these types of lactation consultants are usually not available after you leave the hospital. So how else would you work with a lactation consultant? You can go and check with your insurance company if you have insurance. There are a lot of times there are lactation specialists that work through the insurance company, or you can find one that works in private practice like I did and go through them and they bill your insurance. A lot of insurances have a cap on how many times they will cover in lactation services. So check with your insurance company and your policy that you have and. Make sure that you go about this, um, the right way. I know with my insurance company, if I were to take like a breastfeeding class online, that would've counted as one of my lactation consultant, um, visits. So I had to be very careful with what I did so that I didn't lose opportunities to have a physical, tangible. A person in front of me instead of a course online. You can also check with your pediatrician and, um, you can also check with the boards online. Also, this just came to me, y'all don't forget about this, these, uh, benefits that your jobs may have if you have a FSA or, or an HSA most of the time. These, um, these are covered services through those, through your insurance to be able to use those funds. For lactation support. So don't sleep on that at all. So I know y'all hear me hyping up lactation consultants. I can definitely say I, I will co-sign a lactation consultant any day that this is someone that I highly recommend that you add to your birth team. But I understand that not everyone would need a lactation consultant. So a few reasons why you wouldn't need one would be if you're choosing to formula feed and you know. Already that there are guidelines and ways to do it. If you feel really good about that, then yeah, absolutely. You don't need a lactation consultant. Or if you're breastfeeding and, uh, let's see, say you, you maybe latched and latched immediately and there was never an issue. There was milk was flowing and there was no questions to be had. You don't need a lactation consultant. I, I agree. You don't need one. Um, but there are so many in between. Nuances that come with infant feeding, that I feel that the number of people who are just perfect in that area is a lot less than than we would realize. So that's why I encourage even just reaching out and talking with a lactation consultant when you're pregnant, before you have the baby, just to get an idea of where you are. Like, do you have questions? Um, are you confident? Are you ready? I would say it's not a bad idea to go ahead and get that. Information together, have a conversation before the baby comes so that if things go a little left while the baby is fresh, but you're freshly healing, you know, everybody is um, trying to get rest, and hormones are going crazy. Why scramble at the end when you could have this, a phone number already available and ready to call if the need is there? That's my biggest thing. Why not just have things ready? And if you don't need it, awesome, great, but if you do even better, you don't have to fight and do all these extra things when you need help, you already have someone that you can go to because let's be honest, that 2:00 AM timeframe when you're trying to get this baby latched on and it's the baby's like four days old, y'all trying to figure it out. You're still bleeding, you're still healing. You're feeling engorged, swollen, like that is not the time to be trying to google lactation consultants to help me in my area. My lactation consultant, I was texting her at 3:00

AM 4: 19:27

00 AM they had people around the clock ready to, to text and talk for support. They know what it's like, they know what's up. And it just made me feel so much at peace to have that, that support in my back pocket because I did need it. Uh, but I'm never. The type of person that doesn't want some type of support. So of course I'm gonna, I'm gonna reach out, I'm gonna ask for help. And at the end of the day, this is all about making sure you and your family is supported. However you decide to feed this baby, that's your business. And as far as me, I'm gonna support you in that. But in case you never thought of a lactation consultant, I'm here to add that person in your ear as you're considering who your medical provider will be. Doula. Birth or postpartum, um, and the plethora of other people who can surround you in this birth journey, in this motherhood journey. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you knew about a lactation consulting in case you never heard of it, and I hope this gives you a little bit of clarity if you have any further questions. Concerns, comments. If you disagree with me, put it in the comments. I will gladly accept the feedback because I love the conversation about helping each other and what we need, and I have my perspectives and that's okay, and different people have different perspectives, and that's okay. We welcome it all here because we're all about just making motherhood conversations normal and making sure that everyone has the opportunities and options and information that they need. If you are pregnant right now and building your birth team, stop what you're doing right now and check out my ebook, the Confident Birth Factor. I list out all the different people on your birth team that would absolutely benefit you, how you can find them, when to start working with them. I make it plain and simple and easy. Check that out in the description below. Don't forget to like this episode. Share it with a friend and subscribe so you can know when the next one is dropping. And that's it for today. Until next time.