You’d think that at nearly 70, Lactation Consultant Lesley Smythe might be planning for retirement –but she’s doing quite the opposite and renewing her registration to continue practicing instead.
Many families have benefitted from the passion and dedication she brings to supporting breastfeeding māmā thanks to her expansive mahi in Zimbabwe, United Kingdom and New Zealand. In fact, she’s lost count of how many whānau she’s helped over her 45-year career.
“When I was in the UK I did count for a while, but when I reached about 3000 in sixteen years I stopped counting,” she laughed, “Since then I’ve just kept my nose to the ground and kept working.”
Lesley, who runs the Tiaki Ūkaipō Breastfeeding Support Service at Tui Ora, is one of just three Lactation Consultants in Taranaki – and the only one that can support whānau right across the district.
As someone who loves her job, she’s hopeful more people will follow in her path and choose Lactation Consultancy as a career, especially if they have an interest in health science, nursing or midwifery.
“The lactation consultant field has been growing and changing over the years,” she says.
“Back when I decided to become a Lactation Consultant, it was based largely on the volunteer work I’d done, so I was very easily able to put towards the hours needed to become one. But now there’s a bit more of a process.”
In New Zealand today, candidates need to have completed studies in 14 health science subjects, have 500 hours of mentored experience in breastfeeding support and have completed 95 hours of specific breastfeeding education before sitting the final exam to become a Lactation Consultant.
Advice she’d pass onto anyone thinking about pursuing the role is, “Get your health science papers completed first, so you have options about what roles you’d like to do as a health professional. Then you can move into this space if it’s something you discover you have a passion for.”
Passion is a strong theme that comes through when speaking to Lesley about her own breastfeeding journey and her drive to support others in the same way she was.
“When I was younger, I met people who cared about my breastfeeding success and supported me and walked alongside me. That ignited my own passion to do the same for other women, and that’s been what’s kept me doing it all these years,” she says.
“I just feel so strongly that everybody deserves that kind of support in their breastfeeding journey, and hopefully right from the beginning.”
Not only does Lesley support māmā to breastfeed, but she has also been able to mentor others to work in this space too.
She shares it was a career highlight to be able to help her previous Tiaki Ūkaipō colleague Emma Dillon attain the mentored hours to become a Lactation Consultant.
“When I came to Taranaki, Emma was on her journey to become a Lactation Consultant but didn’t have a mentor. For the next two years we walked alongside each other, she gained her mentoring time, and I gained so much knowledge from her about Māori culture, which led me to get this role at Tui Ora. I just feel really grateful that we could be a part of each other’s journey,” she says.
Reflecting on her favourite part of the job she’s quick to answer, “It’s got to be working with mums!”
“Passing on the wisdom and experience I’ve gained over the years, that’s part of my passion now. That’s why I love doing breastfeeding advocate training because we’re spreading that wisdom out to others, because it’s wisdom that doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to mothers,” she smiles.