Lillian Bartlett Lactation Consultant

28/06/2024

UPDATE: We are back in Bendigo, settling back into life here. Please check out my new Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/growtobloom_midwifery?igsh=MTBnM2Vtamh5emdqdw==

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27/07/2023

With a heavy heart I am announcing closure of bookings in the Bendigo region.

After 5 years servicing Bendigo and surrounding areas, I want to thank you all for booking me and trusting me to guide you through your breastfeeding journey. It has been so wonderful and I absolutely love this line of work and will hopefully continue it.

As a little family of 3, we are making the big move to QLD to further my career in Midwifery.

I am always here to answer any questions you may have online ❤️

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01/03/2023

Happy IBCLC day ❤️ To all the wonderful lactation consultants I have worked with and will work with in the future. And to all my wonderful clients, thank you for making this a beautiful and rewarding career.
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14/01/2023

My breastfeeding journey 💙

Baby L was born via emergency c-section, I was adamant to get skin to skin straight away, knowing the importance of this and how it can impact breastfeeding. As soon as L cried I could see he had a significant anterior tongue tie, this did not deter me from wanting to feed him. Baby L did not attach for a few hours, this can be quite common for c-section bubs. I continued skin to skin with him through recovery and back to the ward.

He finally latched!! Being on the other side of things was different and harder than I expected. Baby L was heavier than a doll I demonstrated feeding with to a new mother and he moved! I was determined for baby L to stay latched and bring my milk in. I believe these three things contributed to my milk coming in on day 2. Constant skin to skin, proper attachment, feeding at every cue.

Baby L wanted to feed, ALOT! That lovely day 2 came around and he would not even sleep more than 30 mins. I kept telling myself this is normal, he isn’t hungry, he is bringing my milk in, this is biologically normally. And that’s exactly what he did.

We went home that day and I was feeling confident, until I wasn’t. Baby L started to fatigue during feeds, most likely due to his TT. My ni***es became damaged and it was very painful to feed. I knew I needed someone to look at his mouth. During the time of waiting for the appointment I protected my milk supply, I hired a hospital grade pump and pumped milk for baby L and bottle fed him when I couldn’t bare to place him on the breast. We were lucky enough to get into a GP in Castlemaine that afternoon, who did the revision. For 2-3 days after I used ni**le shields to help heal my ni***es and allow Baby L to attach properly.

My ni***es healed and Baby L started to gain weight. I was so relieved and grateful for the education and knowledge I had for those first few days of his life.

We are coming up to one whole year of breastfeeding next month and I am so proud of us. We will continue to feed as long as we are both comfortable and happy. Some other things I experienced on our journey were; mastitis, clogged ducts, biting 😬 and dermatitis.

Education and support is key!

12/01/2023

I am back! 🤱🏻 I am excited to share my own breastfeeding journey with you all. Home visits commencing next month 2023, please get in touch 🌸 Here I am with my sweet boy, baby L, having skin to skin just 12 hours young

12/09/2022

Hi all 🙋🏽‍♀️ I am still currently on maternity leave. But happy to answer quick questions in my DMs. Sally from Milk with love lactation support, is doing private lactation consults. You can find her on Facebook ❤️ Milk with Love Lactation Support

14/11/2021

From the 29th of November I will be going on maternity leave. As I am a full time midwife also, I need my days off to recoup and bond with this little being I am growing. For the clients I am currently seeing I will continue to be in contact. If you need assistance over msg/email I am more than happy to help. Otherwise the ABA are a great resource and is a 24 hour hotline. Thank you for the support of my small business over the last 2 years ❤️ it has been amazing working with so many of you. I hope to be back in a year or so, to once again help beautiful mummas and bubs on their breastfeeding journeys 🤱🤱🏻

12/09/2021

Logging off social media, Facebook and Instagram for a little while. Needing to concentrate on this little one and myself 🌈 if you are requiring any advice or wanting a home visit please email me on lactationwithlillian@gmail.com

09/08/2021

Look at the bigger picture always 😊

Weigh-in woes. This is what happened when a mama asked me to weigh her baby. I talked about the pros (not many, in my opinion) and cons (a lot) of this, but she decided to go ahead and weigh. So I pulled out my ridiculously heavy highly sensitive (+-2g) scale, set it down, adjusted it to ensure the spirit level was centred, and weighed her baby. She then fed her baby and we weighed her again (also, in case I wasn't clear, I feel there are MANY negatives to this approach and I very rarely do it...).

Here's what I want to show you.

1. The first image on the left shows this baby's growth chart before her feed, with that dip in weight gain. She was calm and alert, awake, happy. Showed no hunger cues. Honestly, if you were at your paediatrician's office, this would be the baby's ideal state for weighing. BUT! If your baby's growth chart then looked like this during your paediatrician's two-month check, all of my experience tells me that chances are very high that they would instruct you to give a bottle of formula after every feed. Chances are then also very high that I would have an incredibly anxious, scared mother on the phone that day, with all of her confidence and trust in herself shattered.

2. The second image on the right shows this baby's growth chart after her feed. Although no hunger cues were present, this baby managed a good feed and shows significant milk intake. If that same paediatrician check was done after a feed and your baby's chart looked like the second image, not another thought would be given. Sure, you might get a small pair of baby socks as a gift from a formula company (there's a whole other post...), but that's it.

Now let's presume you also have one of those babies older than six weeks, whose gut has adjusted to doing one p**p every two days. Or four days. Or, just for full-scale fun, every ten days. Clearly if your ten-day-p**ping baby was full of p**p and just fed, then your weigh-in will be 'successful'. If the opposite occurs, be prepared to be told in a very nonchalant way that you should add formula to every feed.

This is why I hate weigh-ins. There are so many other ways to accurately measure a baby's health and wellbeing. There are so many more conversations to have than just 'add a bottle of formula'. There are so many women who are needlessly second-guessing their every move after a routine weigh-in. Know that your paediatrician's goal is to get your baby fed and growing -- and clearly, yes, that is the most vital thing! The goal of an IBCLC is to get your baby fed and growing (this is ALWAYS the number one priority) but while also maintaining lactation and with the skills to ensure that breastfeeding is not sabotaged while getting that bubba fed.

My moral? Always look at weight within the whole picture of wellness. It shouldn't be assessed in a completely isolated way. If you get hit with a potential problem, get an IBCLC to work together with your paed.

(I could also write a novel about that first, totally fine, drop in weight! This mama had a huge amount of IV fluids during birth, and her baby also absorbed all this and had a lot of water to p*e out that first day.)

08/12/2020

Those quiet moments 🌸 if you and your little one are having trouble reconnecting, go back to basics. Skin to skin, showers, baths and just being together. You’ve got this mumma 💕 📷

15/11/2020

Does my baby have reflux? Most of us mothers have a bit of an obsession with our baby's "gassiness". We analyze every little fart and burp. We inspect