As a Certified Breastfeeding Counselor (CBC), your role is to help support families in all stages of lactation. One of the best ways to support parents in all stages is by helping them with prenatal breastfeeding education.

Prenatal breastfeeding education is important because it helps parents go into lactation with realistic expectations. We are not trying to share everything that can possibly be difficult, but rather give them tools to navigate common breastfeeding challenges.

The early days of breastfeeding can have a lasting impact on the breastfeeding journey. Helping parents prepare for those early days can make the rest of their lactation experience more manageable.

Prenatal Breastfeeding Education Helps With Realistic Expectations

One of the hardest things about breastfeeding is thinking it is natural and thus it will naturally be easy. While breastfeeding is a typical physiological bodily function, there can be a learning curve with it for both baby and parent.

Prenatal education helps parents have some key realistic expectations such as:

• Frequent feeding does not indicate a lack of colostrum, or later milk, newborns simply have small stomachs which empty quickly necessitating frequent feeding in the early days.
• It is common for babies to need to learn a proper latch. While some babies latch perfectly, others need a bit of support.
• Baby fussing at the breast or in between feeds does not always mean supply or breastfeeding difficulties. Newborns are experiencing hunger, temperature changes, new sensations, sleepiness, overstimulation, etc., for the first time.
• Understand the supply demand process of milk supply so they know to express milk if there are any missed feeds

Prenatal education helps parents understand that the early days of breastfeeding can take a lot of time. However, as the baby’s stomach grows, and more mature milk comes in, the feeds space a bit and feeding will not always be as demanding.

Prenatal Breastfeeding Educations Helps Parents Know When to Ask for Help

One of the biggest hurdles to breastfeeding is a lack of support and evidence-based education. Prenatal education helps parents understand the difference between nipple discomfort and nipple pain. The latter being a reason to seek help as quickly as possible to help ensure efficient milk transfer without nipple damage.

When parents know red flags of when to seek help, they are less likely to wait to seek support. When parents wait to seek support, milk supply can be impacted, nipple damage occur, and baby might already be losing more than the expected amount of birth weight.

Prenatal breastfeeding education is important to help parents know to seek support with any questions and concerns rather than wait it out and hope for the best.

Parents Learn Options and Can Prepare

With prenatal education, parents can learn about all their feeding options. Many parents want to breastfeed, but they worry about returning to work or school. They might also worry about how the other parent, grandparents, etc., can bond with baby if they are not providing a bottle.

With prenatal education, you can help parents learn about the many ways to bond with a baby. You can also explain when and how they might want to begin pumping if they return to work. You can also help them learn about donor milk, formula, and combination feeding.

Education Can Help Dispel Myths

The internet can be a wonderful place. However, lots of myths float around social media. As a CBC, you can provide parents with evidence-based information to help dispel popular and even unusual myths related to latching, feeding, and milk supply.

For example, many social media influencers will say a specific drink will increase milk supply or that breastfeeding parents need to excessively hydrate. You can explain that eating and drinking to hunger and thirst is typically all a breastfeeding parent needs to do. If they are worried about staying hydrated, they can plan on drinking 6-8 ounces of water at each feed. If they have any medical conditions or concerns, they can talk to their midwife or doctor about electrolyte beverages.

Ultimately, prenatal breastfeeding education is important because it helps parents get a healthy start to breastfeeding. Should they have challenges, they can seek support as soon as possible.

Not ready to support parents before and during lactation? Get started today and become a certified breastfeeding counselor!