2. Consider the mother and baby as the Long Case we used to take in the exams of Medical School i.e.: History (listening and learning skills). Examination (assessing a breastfeed). Management (Building confidence).
3. Good communication means that you respect the women’s own thoughts, beliefs, and culture. It does not mean that you tell or advise a person what you think they should do or to push a woman towards a particular action.
4. Role of health worker Health workers need to be able to do more than just offer information. It is part of their job to help mothers look at the cause of any difficulties they have (diagnosis) and to suggest courses of action that can help fix the problem. Often there is no problem to be fixed; the mother just needs assurance that she is doing well.
5. You can use communication skills to Listen and learn about the woman’s beliefs, level of knowledge and her practices; Build her confidence and praise practices that you want to encourage; Offer information Suggest changes the woman could consider if changes are needed Arrange follow up with her.
6. Concept of Counseling The concept of `counseling' is new. Some languages use the same word as `advising'. However, counseling means more than simple advising. Often, when you advise people, you tell them what you think they should do. When you counsel a mother, you help her to decide what is best for her, and you help her to develop confidence. You listen to her, and try to understand how she feels, so that you can help her more effectively.
7. What and Why Counseling is a way of working with people in which you understand how they feel, and help them to decide what to do. You gain their confidence, cooperation, compliance. This reflects positively on your diagnosis and management.
9. Listening and Learning Skills The counselor listens carefully to learn. Begin with helpful Non Verbal Communication: -Introduce your self with a smile. -Offer a chair with no barriers between both of you. -Keep your head level and eye contact. -Use appropriate touch. -Take time and show interest.
10. Non-verbal communication - It is the body language that we use and what we observe of the mother’s body language. - We may observe that a mother is sitting in an uncomfortable position, or that she is looking around concerned that others are listening, and is not able to concentrate on feeding her baby. We receive this useful non-verbal communication from the mother - When you talk with the mother in a place that is comfortable and where she feels safe, this helps her to feel more like talking with you.
11. Open Ended Questions WH not verb beginning questions. - Make client tell you more. - Make client at ease. - Inform you more. Some closed ended questions are unavoidable such as factual or personal history questions. Keep them as few as possible.
12. Show Interest Responses: -Ah, mm, yes. Gestures: - nodding. - eye brow raising. - face expression.
13. Reflect Back Restate, rephrase, to: - Clarify. - Show attention. - Show understanding. Summarize to: - Clarify again. - Bring back to focus. - Client can complete a missing point.
14. Empathize Impersonate client then appreciate her feelings. - Do not think what if YOU were in the same situation. Think of HER in that situation. - Do not SYMPATHIZE with her. - Do not imply her complaint is insignificant.
34. Case study 9/2 2 weeks old Healthy at birth Discharged Day 2 “Sleeping all the time” “Refusing” the breast 3 stools in a week 12% under birth weight Bottle with honey and water twice yesterday UNICEF/HQ91-0168/ Betty Press, Kenya Breastfeeding Counselling: a training course, WHO/CHD/93.4, UNICEF/NUT/93.2
