Breastfeeding, the best gift you can give your baby |
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About Clare Boyle BSc, RM, IBCLC |
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I am a Registered Midwife and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who is committed to helping pregnant women with breastfeeding. The best way to do this is through education and support. Education empowers women to have a good understanding about how their (wonderful) body works and how breastfeeding works. My goal is for women to be informed so they then can make the best choices for themselves and their babies.
I have been a Registered Midwife for over 20 years. I qualified as a Registered General Nurse from Hammersmith Hospital, London in 1985 and qualified as a Registered Midwife from St Mary’s Hospital, Poole, England in 1988. I then worked for 12 years in a Labour & Delivery unit and a Postnatal ward in Los Gatos Community Hospital in California. While in California I repeated my midwifery education and qualified as a Certified Nurse Midwife from the American College of Nurse-Midwives, I also obtained my BSc in Nursing from California State University Dominquez Hills.
However, some of the most important education I received came from my own babies! My twins were born in 1997 and although breastfeeding them was difficult at times it was ultimately one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
In 2001 after moving home to Ireland I started teaching Antenatal classes in Kinsale and providing breastfeeding support for new mum’s. In 2002 I started up the Kinsale Mothers Group, as a support group for new mum’s in the Kinsale area. Over the years while teaching the antenatal classes I realized that pregnant women needed much more information on breastfeeding than I was able to cover in their antenatal classes. So in 2005 I created the Breastfeeding Preparation Class for pregnant women. In 2007 I qualified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. I am a member of the Association of Lactation Consultants of Ireland and the International Lactation Consultants Association.
Becoming a mother is the most life-changing event in a woman’s life, it is wonderful but it also challenging. From both a professional and personal point of view I know that education and support can have a profoundly positive effect on how a woman experiences new-motherhood. Through the services I offer I aim to support women during this extraordinary time in their lives.
