Babies are crawling all over the floor and moms are chatting about everything from which toys are ideal for six-month olds to where the best places to breastfeed are at The Franklin Institute. The Breastfeeding Resource Center (BRC), a non-profit, community-based center dedicated to providing expert clinical and educational breastfeeding services, organizes and runs this unique support group. Since May of 2016, the Speech-Language Institute (SLI) of Salus University has been facilitating weekly Mommy and Me groups and providing speech, language and feeding screening services for the BRC’s moms.
Clinical educator Leah Morton, MS, CCC-SLP, works with the University’s Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) students each semester to structure topical discussions for the moms, revolving around breastfeeding and infant development. Recently, they’ve discussed developmental feeding for infants and toddlers, methods of breastfeeding, such as cue-based feeding, which relies on interpreting infant’s hunger signals, and how to help children speak.
“We designate a topic and guide the discussion around that topic,” Morton said. “If anybody has any concerns about breastfeeding, they can bring it up and discuss amongst the group. The students really take over the role of facilitator. They study the topic each week and present some information in a discussion format to promote comfortability and ease with the new moms.”
The outside-the-classroom experience adds another dimension to the SLP students’ experience as burgeoning clinicians.
“They’re getting exposure to infants – which many people do not get – in a therapeutic environment,” Morton said. “As a student in particular, there are so few placements with infants and young babies. They’re able to learn about early communication and feeding in a hands-on environment that they wouldn’t get otherwise by simply reading the book. “
SLP student Andrea Tame ’18 agrees that the clinical work at the BRC has helped further develop her skills.
“This experience has given me a real-life opportunity to dive into the world of motherhood and share my SLP knowledge,” she said. “I learned so much about feeding and swallowing in pediatrics that I would have not learned in the classroom alone. I’m also learning from the amazing women that attend the BRC.”
Salus University’s partnership at the BRC first started with assistant professor and director of the University’s Occupational Therapy (OT) program, Lauren Sponseller, DOT, who attended the BRC’s support groups as a new mom and is now on the center’s board of directors. She said the facility became an important part of her life during the first few months following the birth of her son and recognized the clinical opportunities available for both the University’s OT and SLP programs.
“I was really miserable; I didn’t have post-partum depression, but I had baby blues,” Sponseller said. “I needed something. For me, it was a really great place to go. It was welcoming and inclusive to all moms. You can go however you are and know you won’t be judged. I saw there was a place for Salus to be involved there.”
Sponseller leads the OT students in similar screenings and classes at the BRC. She hopes to merge the two student-based groups to provide an additional interdisciplinary experience for all of the students involved.
“The next step is to bring the OT and SLP students together at the BRC so they can run classes together,” she said. “Then, the screenings can be inter-professional. I think it’ll help our students see how to do a co-treatment, and how to evaluate and work with a patient when you both have different goals you’re working toward.”
Colette Acker, the BRC’s executive director, is pleased with the partnership between the BRC and Salus as it also allows moms with older children to remain a part of the BRC’s community.
“The Mommy and Me classes run by the SLP students have been a great addition to the BRC,” she said. “We're always looking for new classes and information that would be helpful to parents. The speech-language screenings have also been helpful as it targets older children. It was nice to see previous BRC clients return with their older children.”
SLI holds classes at the BRC’s Abington and Bensalem locations with hopes to expand to the recently opened King of Prussia location. All classes and screenings are free and open to the public.
Learn more about upcoming classes and screenings at the Breastfeeding Resource Center
