BF counsellors/Peer supporters?

Are there any hitchers who are bf counsellors/peer supporters? I'm thinking of enquiring about becoming one with our hospital/health visiting team but I thought I'd try and find out a bit more about what's involved before I make too many enquiries.

TIA,

Lou

I was a breastfeeding mother helper but Hazel is currently training to be a counseller. I've sent her a message so hopefully she'll pop along to answer your queries x

Thanks. I've spoken to the nurse who runs our baby cafe and she's fully behind me which is nice to hear. Our NHS is doing really well with bfing at the mo and the support I've recieved has been great. I'd love to give something back and help them continue to be successful.

As CM said I'm a peer supporter with the ABM and am training to be a BFC. ABM do it primarily by correspondance course, with some face to face training later on. The peer supporter module was pretty straightforward for anyone who's spent any time on here or DW. The BFC course has 8 modules and you're allowed 3 months for each (though there are extensions available pretty easily). I haven't found it too hard so far, though I'm only on module 2 so there's a long way to go

The correspondance course stuff suits my lifestyle, though I do want to find ways to get more hands on experience as well. I also like the ABM as an organisation. Details on their website I think.

Thanks Hazel. Daft question, but what's the difference between peer supporter and bf counsellor please?

What sort of thing are the modules on?

The lady who runs our baby cafe said there'd be some training involved for peer supporter (obviously) but it didn't sound like anything too serious. I'd much rather be well informed before I make too many enquiries just in case I decide it's not for me.

I start my training to be a peer supporter in September. My HV put me in contact with our BF coordinator. She has sent me details of the peer supporters monthly meetings and the weekly BF support group which they set up a couple of weeks ago. I attended the peer supporter meeting last week and really enjoyed it. I got to meet some of the supporters and hear about the referrals and some of the other stuff they are involved in. I think for each area its perhaps different but our peer supporters attend parentcraft sessions to talk about BF, run the support group and get families in need of support referred to them.

I can't wait to start my training. Good luck!

(BTW, Corrine is a peer supporter too)

I've done the ABM peer supporter module and as Hazel said, for BTers it is pretty straight-forward (and we know about kellymom for a wealth of fact-based info) - although it took me a long time to complete it as I kept getting side-tracked reading lots of extra info in the weblinks! I help to run a BF support group and pass mums onto the most local BFC (NHS 'infant feeding coordinator') who isn't well-advertised, even by the area's GPs, MWs & HVs [sigh].

A friend in the neighbouring county is doing a BfN peer support course in a group that is NHS-organised - 12 weeks of 2-3 hours each, and she takes her BFing 6mth-old along too.

I'd love to do BFC training but have to practice my listening skills big-time first, plus we're moving overseas in 2 years so can't put in the voluntary hours on the national helpline after qualifying.

If training through the NHS you might want to ask about the traing - is it run by one of the BF organisations (ABM, BfN, LLL)? Is there full-time BFC support (eg. to solve problems with latch & positioning) once you start contact with mums? From local experience, voluntary peer supporters may be expected to help solve latch & positioning problems, which is past the boundaries & knowledge of peer support and into BFC territory. You need to be able to pass problems to a face-to-face BFC asap.

ABM webpage here: http://www.abm.me.uk/training-and-teaching-abm

the different BF organisations seem to do things in very different ways. The course your hospital/HV team are talking about is probably run by a counsellor from one of them (likely LLL or BfN) and would qualify you as a peer supporter. If you then wanted to take it further, you could do a full BFC course, which takes much longer & is more in depth.

I've done a year of training to become a BFC with the NCT. The NCT don't do any kind of semi-qualification - straight onto the BFC course or not. The course is basically a degree - they estimate at around 3 years to complete it, after which time you'll have a recognised university qualification. You find a local tutor with space and then attend monthly tutorials where you practise counselling skills and learn from each others presentations, and in the meantime the onus is on you to do a lot of reading, writing essays, preparing presentations etc. There are also residential workshops at a couple of stages. I really, really enjoyed the tutorials I went to but found it hard to create the extra time needed to push on through the course. I also found it very, very theoretical.

I couldn't commit to getting to my tutorials anymore (there weren't any local tutors, so mine is over an hours drive away, which is too much for me with 2 children) so I haven't re-started after the time out to have Eli. There is an opening in a tutorial group closer to home so I might start that in Sept, or I might start again completely with the BfN.

With the BfN, I'd do a peer supporter course first, which would be 8 consecutive weeks worth of a 3 hour course. That would be run out of a hospital, and I'd then be expected to start up voluntary work as a peer supporter within that hospital or hospital trust (I've been told they'd like me to commit to twice a month at least). If I decide to continue to train as a BFC with the BfN then tutorials are in the evening (suits me much better with childcare). At the moment I'm leaning towards starting from scratch with the BfN - the course itself seems a bit more hands on and I like the idea of being kind of pushed to do voluntary work in conjunction with it rather than essentially getting a degree in counselling.