Order Blueprints

Linda Kutner with Zoey, primary author of Blueprints

What is Blueprints?

The text, Clinical Experience in Lactation: A Blueprint for Internship is a training manual/workbook developed to help aspiring lactation consultants focus on the activities and experiences they need to become confident and knowledgeable in their new profession. There are a wide variety of activities, some of which include:

• Teaching breastfeeding classes under different situations.
• Observing labors and deliveries and seeing how different procedures and medical interventions can impact breastfeeding.
• Observing at WIC and physician's offices and seeing what breastfeeding mothers may be confronted with in these situations.
• Working with breastfeeding mothers and babies in a hospital setting
  All the activities have questions  which help the student in getting the most out of the activity.

The second part of the text is an assortment of conditions commonly seen in breastfeeding mothers and infants for which the lactation consultant must be competent to assess, evaluate and develop a plan of care.

• Each condition begins with a research page that the student fills out with general information pertaining to that condition. This information comes from various medical and lactation references.
• Each condition includes history questions pertaining to a particular dyad and tables for information obtained from the breastfeeding assessment and evaluation of the mother and infant. The intern then develops a plan of care for the dyad and explains her rational for her suggestions.

The third part of the text is a collections of forms that the student can use in her activities and experiences and a variety of record keeping pages to assist her in keeping tract of her hours and which activities and experiences she has done. The aspiring lactation consultant may not need to do all the activities and experiences depending on her background. But even if a student is a labor and delivery nurse, doing the birthing activity from the lactation perspective gives what goes on during the birth an entirely different meaning. This text is to help the student concentrate on areas where she has the least experience and knowledge to better prepare her for the IBLCE exam.