IBCLC Using Research Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Reading let alone critically analyzing a research article can be quite intimidating to a non-researcher lactation consultant. How many lactation consultants find a research only to read the abstract, introduction, and conclusion to skip over the parts of the article they do not understand? Lactation consultants must provide evidence-based, ethical care to mothers, their baby, and their family. Lactation consultants can be instrumental and part of a multi-disciplinary research team. This presentation will help demystify research articles by providing ten practical tips for the non-researcher IBCLC. Not only will the lactation consultant feel more confident about reading the research article but the presentation will offer a great review of research concepts that are included in the IBLCE exam blueprint and prepare exam candidates for the IBLCE exam.

Despite irrefutable research evidence for the benefits of breastfeeding, less than 37% of infants worldwide meet WHO targets for optimal breastfeeding. Persistently low breastfeeding rates are due in part due to poor uptake of breastfeeding best-practice guidelines, such as the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. The growing field of knowledge translation in healthcare reveals that it takes from 8-30 years for research findings to be adopted into clinical practice, and that up to 45% of patients don’t receive evidence-based healthcare. This presentation aims to help those providing lactation support to better understand the complexity of factors influencing the use of evidence in practice, as well as what can be done to facilitate the uptake of best practice guidelines to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Whether or not care providers follow evidence-based practices is influenced by the nature of the evidence (e.g., perceived relevance of the evidence), characteristics of the care providers (e.g., motivations to change practice) as well as characteristics of the care environment (e.g., leadership support for change). Successful strategies for supporting practice change are tailored to local barriers and facilitators to evidence use, and can be informed by the growing number of theoretical models and frameworks for KT in healthcare.

Research ethics institutions protect the rights, safety, dignity, and well-being of research participants, and also have a duty to ensure ‘good’ research. Conducting poor research is unethical, and there are many studies in the field of breastfeeding and lactation that have been challenged when published, simply because their findings and results are, at best, incorrect. Proper definitions, project design and industry conflict of interest are important factors, and these can be critiqued and challenged at the ethical review stage.

Participants will learn how to use the method of the '4 Ds of a Brief Assessment' to scrutinise the research questions, definitions of words used, disclosures and even the research methodology to decide if a study will have both scientific and ethical merit in the field of breastfeeding and lactation. If you are a donor, an applicant, a manager or a researcher you need to be aware of the process of ethical review of research protocols, the possibility of specialist review, and also of how to sift through published studies that have questionable study designs, and the findings.

Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding to both mothers and infants, the majority of women are unable to reach the recommendations of the World Health Organization of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life and continued breastfeeding for two years or longer. It's important for health care professionals to stay up to date with the latest research to always ensure that the care they're providing is in line with current best evidence.

This presentation will present the results of a research review on the effectiveness of interventions to improve breastfeeding outcomes. A database search including PubMed, Cochrane, and CINAH were conducted to identify systematic review and meta-analysis studies in English that focused on breastfeeding interventions that addressed breastfeeding outcomes in full-term healthy newborns from 2012 to 2022. Learn more about the which breastfeeding interventions are backed by strong evidence, quality issues in certain studies, and the implications for further research.

Evidence-based practice directly influences and drives day-to-day clinical practice in the current healthcare environments. Lactation consultants need to keep up to date with research evidence for best practice. Although the primary goal of lactation providers is to provide optimal lactation care to breastfeeding mothers, it is necessary to know how to apply appropriate evidence to use on a regular basis by understanding research process and how to read research articles. The purposes of this presentation are to present basic concepts related to conducting and understanding lactation related research including quantitative and qualitative research methods. In addition, the presentation also will cover the guides to reading scientific research articles. The participants do not require extensive or advanced medical or research methodological knowledge to attend this workshop. Some breastfeeding research papers including case studies, clinical trials, and qualitative research will be used as examples.

We all understand, generally, that lactation support providers – from licensed primary healthcare providers (HCP) to volunteer peer counselors – owe a “duty of care” to the parents they work with, defined by laws and ethics codes. But many are concerned that they do not know what is really expected of them, in the moment of clinical care, when decisions about how to do things “the right way” must be made. This session will cover the basic of ethics and legal duty as a lactation support provider. Examples from the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) literature will be used. A few topics that are the most common "hot spots" for practitioners (the ones that make us sweat) will be explored with a few slides, and a lot of free-flow Q&A with session attendees, as we ponder realistic tactics to protect ourselves as practitioners with cool heads and clinical excellence.

The field of Human Lactation is a new profession. Much of what we use comes from apprenticeship programs and hard learned lessons from a mother’s own personal experience. The lactation profession needs to investigate several of their practices and policies to discover what is evidence based and what is anecdotal evidence. This presentation explores the practices commonly employed in breastfeeding (growth monitoring, infant positioning, the use of assisted feeding devices, and counseling skills) to determine which are evidence based and which will require further study if they are to be used in clinical practice.