How do you bill?

For phone consultations I will mail you a invoice after our conversation and the payment is due within one month of services received. For home visits I expect payment immediately following the consultation that day. I will work with families if they need to make payments over time but at this time I do not accept credit cards.

What about repeat phone consultations?

If you have a problem or question that I feel cannot be fully addressed in one phone call, I will recommend you pay for a home visit. If this is not your choice and you opt for a phone consultation then any questions down the road about the same, or a different, problem will be charged as another phone consultation. Some things can easily be addressed and fixed in a good length phone consultation (weaning advice perhaps) but other things (such a baby refusing the breast) may be an on going issue and should be address through a home visit.

How is a phone consultation scheduled?

After identifying your concerns and problems as well as gathering your contact information we will set up a time to talk, when both of us can most likely be uninterrupted. I try to make this happen within that very day. This will be your appointment time. I save it for you, schedule around it for you, adjust my schedule to it for you.  It requires 6 hours notice to cancel. If the phone call does not take place at the allotted time (because you do not call, or I cannot get an answer, ect) then you will still be billed in full. After the appointment time I will mail a bill out to you.

 I am suprised you charge for phone calls, isn’t that usually a volunteer job?

In most areas of the US there are organizations that have volunteer peer counselors; we have a LLL in the Clifton Springs area that does this. The counselors with groups like that are other mothers that have gone through a peer training program and offer their help to other nursing mothers as they can with a limited scope of practice. I have a more extensive level of training and education that allows me to work breasfeeding consultations into my doula business and do things differently. It is very common in other areas where they are more lactation consultants to have private practice LC’s that run their services just like mine. In the Finger Lakes, my situation and set up is a unique one. I get many calls a week from nursing mothers asking for free phone support. I myself have a young family and cannot take the time to help them all on a volunteer basis. This is one reason, though, why I started the nursing mother’s meetings. I value a mother being able to find free mother to mother support and my meetings make that possible.

What does your certification mean?

I am a CLC which is a Certified Lactation Counselor. It means that for those initials I have gone through a 40 hour course as well as passed a three part exam. On top of that I have received peer training from two separate organizations totaling in an additional 50 hours in training. I also have ongoing continuing education through organizations such as WIC and DONA and various breastfeeding professionals. In my experience as a breastfeeding counselor I have helped over 200 woman and spent well over 1,500 hours in contact hours alone.

What is your scope of practice?

I can not prescribe medications. I cannot tell you what medications or herbals are safe to take. I can however empower you to find out on you own what is safe to take by providing the latest research findings, citing sections from my resources and encouraging you to speak to your doctor armed with that information. I can often help you come to your own decision based on the research and medical findings that I give you. I am not an RN and do not prefer medical tasks like taking temperatures or checking blood pressures. I can however help with a mother and baby’s nutritional needs as well as assessing proper weight and weight gain for baby. I can also tell you when a situation is out of my scope of practice and refer you to the proper medical professional.

What can you help with?

Pumping, sore nipples, engorgement, plugged ducts, going back to work, combination feeding, weaning, relactation, mastitis, a baby that won’t latch, nipple preference or confusion, introducing artificial nipples like bottles or pacifiers, low milk supply, over supply, leaking milk, tandem nursing, nursing twins, milk blebs, the first few days, sleeping, introducing solids, assessing stooling patterns, frequent projectile spitting up, babies the are fussy at breast, teething and biting, and many many more concerns!