I need breastfeeding help, but I live in the middle of nowhere…

Enter the world of telehealth lactation consults.

It’s 3am, it feels like the rest of the world is sleeping and you are sitting up with your baby, and your breastfeeding relationship is falling apart.

And to make matters a little more complicated, you live in a small town, with a visiting GP once a week. Or you’re a farmer who has watched time and again calves feed with no issues straight after they are born (why can’t it just be like that for you?) but town is an hour away and the child health nurse is on leave.

Oh mumma, I have been there. I actually did have plenty of medical supports in my town, but no accessible, knowledgeable breastfeeding support.

What I wish I knew then was that the Australian Breastfeeding Association has a national helpline which I could have called at 3am to talk my through that dark hour. These lovely volunteer mothers provide peer support with a huge side serve of breastfeeding knowledge, and are available 24/7. Yes, even Christmas day and in the middle of the night.

Mine was quite a complex feeding situation – twins, born prematurely, and barely enough milk to feed one, let alone both. I needed professional help, and a solid plan to get me through these days.

I am so happy to now be in a position to help those mums that don’t have face to face access to breastfeeding support. Telehealth works well, though admittedly it’s not quite the same as bringing our energy together in one room to work through your breastfeeding issues.

These are my biggest tips for maximising the power of a telehealth lactation consult:

·       The ideal set up is for you to use a bigger device (laptop or tablet) propped on a piece of furniture in front of you, and you will be seated comfortably on the couch (or where ever you normally feed). This will give me a good front view and you won’t have to be fussing around to keep it in position.

·       To make it even more ideal, you will have a support person in attendance, who can also dial into the call on a phone when it is time to do the assessment. The support person can then move that device around for alternative views, which is what I would do if I was in the room with you.

·       Send through photos and videos before your appointment so I can look at these when we meet for alternative views. This would be more important if you aren’t going to have a support person in attendance, or if there was something in particular you wanted me to see, whether how a feed is usually going, or something about yours or your baby’s anatomy.

·       Think about how you are going to feel about exposing your breast via video link before I ask you to do it. I send you a secure link through my scheduling and record keeping software, so there is no chance someone could pop into our Zoom room, but it’s a bit of a weird thing to do. Yet another thing your weren’t prepared for in motherhood.

·       Ask questions before, during and after your appointment. I feel like sometimes we are so busy making sure we can see and hear each other, that questions that would have been asked face to face might get missed.

The world is a wonderous place, and telehealth is one of those technologies that boggles my mind a bit that it now exists, seeing as telephones had cords and dials when I was a kid, but I am thankful that it does, as it allows access where there wasn’t access before.

Get in touch if you would like to discuss how telehealth lactation consults can work for you, or head to my online bookings to secure your time slot.

Keep growing strong, Ann