All you need to know about the Feeding and Carrying Advocacy Course

The Feeding and Carrying Advocacy course is designed to support both baby-carrying professionals (advocates, peer supporters and consultants) and infant feeding professionals (advocates, peer supporters, counsellors, lactation consultants). It aims to provide you with the tools to understand and facilitate the combining of the two sets of skills. We are passionate about both topics and we believe that this course could lead to increase rates of breastfeeding and increased rates of carrying. We also want to emphasise that this course is about supporting the diversity of families and feeding options.

We pride ourselves on the quality of all the add-ons you get with the course

– A one-day course, covering theoretical and practical knowledge, helping you gain confidence so that you have the skills to support parents as soon as you have attended the course.

– Handouts: We understand that there is a lot to take in and that you want to pay full attention to what is being taught without worrying about taking too many notes. All handouts provided are kept up-to-date and you will always be given access to the most recent versions.

– Access to a support group: the support group is held on Facebook and benefits from other feeding and carrying advocates’ experience. If you do not wish to be on Facebook, you can always contact your trainer directly for support. Your trainer can also contact the Facebook group on your behalf.

– The right to re-attend the course as many times as you like! (with a nominal admin fee).

All of this for as little as £100! (for a course in mainland Great Britain, please contact us for courses further afield)

– Benefits of feeding with help from a sling:
We will discuss how carrying and feeding are skills that are mutually beneficial. We will explore current research and existing practices.

– Role and limitations of a carrying and feeding advocate:
We will define our role and our boundaries and discuss the language that will help facilitate combining the two skills.

– Safety whilst feeding and carrying
Whilst most carrying is straightforward, there are associated risks that need to be discussed in order to limit issues. We will visit guidelines and how to relate them to most baby practices.

Vertical, cradle and rugby hold feeding

Bottle feeding and carrying

Pumping and carrying

Cup feeding, syringe feeding, supplemental nursing system and carrying

Basic front or hip carries in a woven wrap, a stretchy wrap, a ring sling, a meh dai, a buckle carrier and a simple scarf

Full support versus carrying aid

Breastfeeding covers

Confidence

Empathy

Respect

Active Listening

Observation

Pedagogy (Teaching Theory)

Self-awareness

Curiosity

The remote courses run on the same schedule as the in-person courses but they are delivered via Zoom and YouTube. This means that you can attend from anywhere in the world! They run on UK time so make sure to check the time difference from where you are.

Star courses have various locations but are guaranteed to run, even with only one participant, so if you need to book travel, childcare or accommodation you can do so without worrying of a possible cancellation.

We are proud of offering a service that is driven by quality.

The Feeding and Carrying Advocacy courses are currently limited to 20 participants.

It is possible for the courses to come nearer to you.

First, you need to get a group together 5 to 20 people for the feeding and carrying advocacy course. This helps us with ensuring courses do run and are not organised only to get cancelled nearer the time. We prefer spending all our energy looking after the ever-growing consultants and improving the services we offer to you.

Then you need to agree on a date from the possible dates. You can get in touch either before or after this step to make sure your favourite date will not get snapped right in front of your eyes!

Once you get in touch, we will need all the names and email addresses of the participants so we can send you our booking form and training information. Feel free to request it at any time if you wish to read it prior to joining a group.

Once all the deposits are received, we will look at a suitable venue. Your local knowledge is greatly appreciated for this but not obligatory.

If you do not know anybody else who is interested, you can join this Facebook group to get a group together. You can also get in touch to register interest as we keep a record of all the people who have registered interest in the past and can put all of you in touch.

If the dates available do not work for you, let us know as we may be able to move things around to accommodate you.

Do not hesitate to get in touch!

It is possible for the feeding and carrying advocacy course to come abroad. If it is the day before or after the consultancy course, the criteria from courses in other locations apply (see above). If it is a one-off course, it will depend on the number of participants, we may have additional costs:
For 6 or 7 people, the travel and accommodation expenses will need to be covered by the group.
For 8 or 9 people, the travel expenses will need to be covered by the group.
For 10 people or more there are no extra costs.

Do not hesitate to get in touch!