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Breastfeeding counseling in primary care: empowering woman as a general practitioner and certified breastfeeding consultant

Vytenė MENKEVIČIENĖ

Despite the proven health benefits, the rate of breastfeeding remains low according to WHO data. Breastfeeding counseling has been shown to increase the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding (Sikorski et al. 2003), so providing support to all women, is one of the most important steps in changing these statistics. Unfortunately, according to scientific data (Levinienė et al. 2013, Marks et al. 2015, Biggs et al. 2020), medical professionals are not well trained to support breastfeeding women.As a family doctor, I often found myself not being able to provide breastfeeding woman with the information they needed. This encouraged me to seek opportunities for building my knowledge and becoming a small but important change, I became a certified lactation consultant (CLC). In this way, I started to provide real support to women after childbirth, rather than just being a passive source of information.I am one of the very few general practitioners in my country that is also a certified breastfeeding specialist. I realise that I will not be able to create a significant change in breastfeeding statistics on my own, but I still believe that you need to start the change where you are.In order to provide appropriate support to all women after giving birth, it is important to develop easy-to-use and accessible sources of eviden-based information on breastfeeding for healthcare professionals, such as mobile applications. To increase the availability of breastfeeding support to all women, regardless of their financial situation, a breastfeeding specialist should be part of the primary healthcare team.My goal is to encourage my colleagues to expand their knowledge about breastfeeding by inspiring them with my example, so they can provide timely help and much-needed support to women after giving birth. I became a trainer, giving presentations to colleagues on breastfeeding topics and participating in projects aimed at promoting breastfeeding in my country.Knowing that providing information about breastfeeding and supporting women can increase the duration of breastfeeding, which will also have a positive impact on women's emotional health, each of us can become an important and so needed change.