DeBoer & Koropatnicki Become International Board Certified Lactation Consultants

Nancy DeBoer and Lindsay Koropatnicki, registered nurses at Brookings Health System’s obstetrics unit, recently became International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) from the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE). They join IBCLCs Sara Klug and Aleycia Gerlach to form the lactation team at New Beginnings Birth Center.

Brookings Health System is a Baby-Friendly designated hospital that supports families in every aspect of breastfeeding. As IBCLCs, DeBoer and Koropatnicki are available to assist parents who deliver at Brookings Health System with any lactation needs. Assistance they offer includes positioning and latching of an infant, establishing and increasing milk production, and providing breastfeeding support measures when mothers go back to work or are otherwise separated from their baby.

To become certified lactation consultants, DeBoer and Koropatnicki completed 90 hours of IBCLE-approved lactation education and 1,000 hours of supervised clinical experience with breastfeeding mothers and babies. In addition, they were required to have completed college-level science and anatomy classes.

IBCLCs focus on preventive care. They are available during pregnancy to assess and provide information on how to successfully initiate breastfeeding. They continue that assistance after the baby is born by helping families overcome breastfeeding challenges, providing accurate information, and continuing to support them as their baby grows. They assist families returning to work or school, help families in more unusual situations such as breastfeeding more than one baby or nursing a sick or premature infant, and help train nursing staff to manage basic breastfeeding care.

Brookings Health System’s OB unit, New Beginnings Birth Center, has eight beds consisting of five labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum (LDRP) suites and three postpartum recovery rooms. The unit provides full OB services to expectant parents and enables area residents to deliver their baby close to home with a local physician. To learn more about New Beginnings Birth Center, please visit brookingshealth.org/OB.

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic & Optical, and medical clinics in Arlington, White and Volga, South Dakota. It is a non-profit, city-owned facility that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency and extended care services. Brookings Hospital provides local access to doctors in Brookings and offers robotic da Vinci surgery and Mako robotic-arm assisted procedures, making it one of the premier rural community hospitals in South Dakota. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.