EPLC Ethics | EP Institute

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant (EPLC) will attempt to carry out core values, named tenets, as they relate to ethics, professionalism and conduct. Honesty, integrity, transparency, due diligence, collective exclusive pumping perspective, and social media policy will intertwine with their consultations with expecting, current and past exclusive pumping individuals, community members and other lactation professionals. The following will provide context into each of these tenets.

Tenets of the Code of Ethics, Professionalism and Conduct

The Code of Ethics, Professionalism and Conduct tenets include:

Honesty

Integrity

Transparency

Due Diligence

Collective Exclusive Pumping Perspective

Social Media Practices

The Expectations

Honesty

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will provide an honest depiction of their qualifications in terms of education, consultations, certifications, limitations and services they cannot provide.

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will be honest about the following:

Their education in lactation specific education will be obtained outside of the Exclusive Pumping Institute. Some lactation education programs are 20 to 95 hours of lactation specific education. The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will disclose where they obtained their lactation specific education and how many hours the program covered. Additional qualifications can also be mentioned as it supports exclusive pumping. An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will be familiar with flange sizing nipples as it relates to exclusive pumping. They will provide this service via a secured video platform. An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will have undergone specific and ethical training relating to seeing and viewing bare breasts, and will provide consults with dignity and respect.

Their consultations will reflect a combination of what they’ve learned within their lactation specific education as it can relate to exclusive pumping, and current exclusive pumping education and research. This means that there is no direct observation of the infant, as no at breast (nursing) consultation is observed. Their consultations may however include questions relating to times baby sleeps and feeds to provide more accurate pumping scheduling. Their consultations will also reflect evidence-based practice and education as it relates to exclusive pumping specifically.

While the Exclusive Pumping Institute is currently seeking an accreditation body to certify its upskill training for lactation health professionals, it is not currently accredited. As a result, it does not contain the word “certified” in its title. The term consultant is used instead of the term counselor as the Exclusive Pumping Institute’s stance of the term counselor signifies bodies such as therapists or social workers. Many exclusive pumpers experience nursing grief, and using terms such as counselor can be misleading to assume the EPLC provides grief counselling. Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultants provide consultations about exclusive pumping and pumping, and as such, they are consultants. Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant may provide peer to peer grief discussion and lending an ear to support the nursing grief process, but will be recommending clients to seek out the counselling of a mental health counselor or therapist professional.

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant’s limitation is that they cannot specifically recommend one breast pump brand or product. They can include a range of breast pumps that may suit the clients needs. This prohibits quick backs from breast pump companies in hopes of its product being the dominant suggestion for clients. For example, breast pump company A provides the Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant with a free breast pump in hopes that the EPLC will only promote Breast Pump A to the majority of their clients. Only if the specific brand suits their client’s need based on the consult, will the consultant provide that breast pump, among at least 2 other breast pump brands as suggested pumps. An EPLC will have a vast knowledge on the majority of breast pumps and their accessories to provide a range and not just one option. The EPLC may offer discount codes for products or pumps, but will not receive a monetary quick back for such products or services listed. Breast pumps used by the Exclusive Pumping Institute are used for education, training and research of exclusive pumping to improve the practices of breast pumping, and breast pump lactation care. An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant understands that what pumping strategies and breast pumps work for one, does not work for all. The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will not make product or pump suggestions that go beyond the scope of the client’s needs. For example, the client uses a Medela pump but all the product and breast pump suggestions provided by the Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant can only be used with a different brand of pump that the client does not current own, unless specifically requested by the client (i.e. looking for new pump recommendations). The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will also disclose the going rate for the products and recommendations to the best of their ability. Their consultations will reflect these principles.

An EPLC cannot diagnose a client within its consultation. For example, signs of an infection will be suspected, and advised to see a medical professional. Cracked nipples/ vasospasm will not be diagnosed, only suspected with further recommendation to seek a medical professional for appropriate care/medication.

An EPLC cannot provide at breast (nursing) recommendations, this is outside their scope. If someone is combination feeding, only recommendations made as it relates to pumping will be provided. If someone is at breast, only pumping education, information and potential breast pump and breast pump accessories recommendations will be provided. An EPLC cannot provide grief counselling. Peer to peer discussion about nursing grief can occur within the Pumped Love Exclusive Pumping Support group, but it is not a substitute for professional grief counselling.

Integrity

Exclusive Pumping is still observed as non-traditional and non-sustainable practice in the eyes of many lactation health care providers. Peer-reviewed research has provided insight that this is not the case, as it a sustainable feeding method. Peer-reviewed research has also examined how exclusive pumping is un-institutional and therefore less accepted. While it is less mainstream accepted, it still occurs, and exclusive pumping persons are entitled to the same level of lactation care as individuals who nurse their infants, or same level of education and tools provided to safely feed infants formula by lactation health care providers. The Exclusive Pumping Institute firmly believes that exclusive pumping persons should not have to research all their information once they have decided to exclusive pump, where lactation professionals with such designations should have the ability to provide them with judgment free lactation care that can differ from at breast (nursing) care.

The client’s confidentiality is to be protected, unless deemed different by law.
The EPLC will divulge any bias within consult that relates to specific recommendations. For example, if the EPLC has used the products recommended, they will disclose, just as they will disclose if they have not personally used specific devices.
Breast pump and accessories recommendation are to be provided if requested by the client, however the client’s decisions will be respected.
As many Exclusive Pumping persons use bottles to feed their infants, their bottle recommendation specifically to bottle teats collapsing will be suspected, but advised to seek out the professionalism of a medical provider. Bottle brand and recommendations will be provided based on peer-reviewed articles that indicate the rates of flow per min. Several options will be provided as well as a link to the journal article(s) for the exclusive pumping client to further review. Ultimately, the choice of the bottle brand and nipple will be chosen by the client.

Transparency

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will be transparent with:

Their services, fees, and their limitations
Their qualifications
Their cancellation policy and refund policy
Their education
Their limitations
All recommended products or services will be disclosed if they have been used/tested by the EPLC or if they received the item for free from the manufacturer/company
Carry business insurance as required by law
Will disclose any affiliations to any specific company that supports lactation specifically (i.e. breast pump or product)

Due Diligence

An Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will provide their due diligence to:

Arrive on time to meetings
Provide exclusive pumping consultations based on the education, training and research available on exclusive pumping, as well as lactation education and research specifically as it relates to expressing human milk.
Provide milk storage recommendations based on peer-reviewed research. Several recommendations as to rotating milk will be provided based on exclusive pumping education and research.
Uphold the importance of human milk as the optimal nutrition for infants for the first 12 months, and always support the client’s decisions in human feeding
Provide the client with notes from their consult that can be provided to the client’s medical team

Collective Exclusive Pumping Perspective

The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant, in addition to lactation education provided by an outside organization, will have obtained exclusive pumping education through:

Full exposure to real-lived exclusive pumping individuals obtained through written full consent (not support solely provided via Facebook support groups)
Exposure to a variety of nipple types and how they respond to a variety of breast pumps and breast shields
Being able to differentiate the needs of the client from those of our own (if a previous or current exclusive pumping individual)
Understanding the different categories of exclusive pumping individuals and their needs in building milk supply, maintaining milk supply, weaning
Understanding the differences between at breast (nursing) consultations and exclusive pumping consultations
Profound knowledge of breast pumps, their message modes, expression modes, their breast shield counterparts, compatibility with other brands shields, vacuum, replacement of working part guidelines, and what it means to test breast pumps in mmHg
Address proper breast flange sizing through the combination of exclusive pumping education based on research, training and manufacturer recommendations.
Understand the reasons behind exclusive pumping, and support the exclusive pumpers journey, no matter how long, without judgment.

Social Media Practices

-The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will abide by the follow social media criteria:

Not accept any virtual videos sent via messenger to ask for assistance with flange sizing as this service is to be performed via a secure platform
Facebook group support for flange sizing will be limited to asking the poster if they have measured their nipples, and provide the generic recommendation, and prefacing it with the generic recommendation
Facebook group support will incorporate collective exclusive pumping education to support only within the scope of the poster’s request for support. For example, the individual asks for support with dropping pumps, the EPLC will not put undo pressure to increase supply.
They will not engage in raising conflict
Will not post any photos on social media of clients and/or their children without obtaining written consent prior to posting
Be respectful of those posting inquiries

The Exclusive Pumping Lactation Consultant will abide by these tenets, as laid out by the Exclusive Pumping Institute.