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Most health professionals feel poorly trained in medical issues related to lactation - in one questionnaire 52% of paediatricians felt that their training was inadequate. 93% of UK medical students would like more lactation education than they receive. The UK World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Report in 2016 identified insufficient training for health professionals as one of seven key gaps. Apart from seeking to improve local and national training (join our Facebook group to discuss this further), here are some resources to pursue.

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E-learning modules:

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Healthy Child Programme breastfeeding (or search for breastfeeding on e-learning for health, e-lfh)

Healthy Child Programme formula feeding (or search for formula feeding on e-lfh)

NIFN (National Infant Feeding Network) infant feeding module (also available through ESR, the electronic staff record)

Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative e-learning for GPs and Paediatricians. Require subscription (individual or institutional)

A teaching slide deck for pharmacists and counter staff from Wendy Jones

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OpenPediatrics hosts a free set of e-learning modules deigned to cover the 3 hours of training needed to work in an UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative accredited setting - you need to register first and then search for "breastfeeding" to find the 15 modules (called Bella Breastfeeding Provider Training). At completion there is a certificate

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Distance learning courses

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The Association of Breastfeeding Mothers run high quality distance learning courses for mothers and health professionals - the Foundation Module and Advanced Course.

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Lactation Consultant

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Health Professionals who support breastfeeding/chestfeeding families as a significant part of their working practice, or who have qualified as breastfeeding counsellors with lay organisations, or La Leche League leaders in a voluntary capacity, may consider becoming an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant. This involves 90 hours of lactation specific education, 1000 supervised clinical hours and a rigorous examination. Re-accreditation happens every 5 years. See the Lactation Consultant GB website for more advice.

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Other Educational Resources

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American Academy of Pediatrics Breastfeeding Curriculum - including prepared Powerpoint talks and evaluation tools

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ABOUT US >

Thank you for visiting the Hospital Infant Feeding Network. This website is a repository of relevant knowledge and best practice resources for health professionals. To join the conversation, ask questions and share your experiences please join us on Facebook or Twitter.

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You may have noticed that we use 'additive' language on our website to refer to lactation and human milk feeding. This means that we might refer to 'breastfeeding/chestfeeding'. Chestfeeding is a term that some trans and non-binary people use to refer to feeding their child at the chest if the word breast is not congruent with their gender identity. Using additive language helps reduce a feeling of exclusion for non-binary and transgender people, without taking away from the importance of words like breastfeeding and mother. We do not always use additive language - for example when using infographics created by other organisations or referring to scientific research that didn't use additive language as this may not generalisable. There is a much more detailed description of the additive approach here.

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