LactApp has just launched LactApp Medical, a new mobile application for lactation
advice aimed at professionals. After creating LactApp, the world’s leading breastfeeding app
in 2016, the company has designed a new application that provides useful tools for
healthcare professionals to assist breastfeeding mothers and their babies who come to their
practice.
Unlike LactApp — an app designed for mothers with customized content according to the
stage of breastfeeding or pregnancy they are in— LactApp Medical gives professionals
access to the full content of the app. It includes specific sections for professionals with a
special focus on Covid-19 and is free to download for both iOs and Android.
In addition, LactApp Medical Premium offers new functionalities to accompany healthcare professionals in their work:
- Consultation chat with the team of experts led by international lactation consultantsIBCLC Alba Padró and Laia Aguilar, in which to discuss their own cases.
- A practical case study to solve each week, to keep up to date on different problems and solutions related to lactation.
- Medical information on the interaction of lactation with symptoms and pathologies.
- Tracking functions to monitor the evolution of babies, with automatic detection of anomalies.
- A dedicated blog with specific content for professionals.
Lack of training
According to the Lancet, “substantial gaps in knowledge and skills to support breastfeeding are reported at all levels of healthcare staff”. The UK GP Infant Feeding Network informs that when surveyed, few GPs report having had some formal training on lactation. Even in Norway where breastfeeding initiation and continuation are high, GPs scored an average of only 49% correct answers in multiple-choice knowledge questions on the topic. In the absence of training, those professionals may merely rely on personal experience of themselves or their spouses to inform practice.
Increasingly, health care professionals are impulsing the demand for education and training on lactation and LactApp Medical aims to accompany these professionals in specialties like pediatrics, nursing, gynecology, physiotherapy, speech therapy, dentistry or psychology, as well as lactation consultants, peer support volunteers, doulas and midwives.
In the words of LactApp’s Chief Clinical Officer, IBCLC and midwife Laia Aguilar, “we need to put the focus on women’s health and give breastfeeding the attention that mothers demand, especially as the pandemic has left so many of them in a vulnerable situation”. In this context, “LactApp offers a helping hand to professionals, to become their support in clinical practice”.
1st Day LactApp Medical
The application was launched during the 1st LactApp Medical Day, which was attended by more than 1,400 registered mother and child care professionals. During the virtual event, the 1st LactApp Best Practices Awards were presented in collaboration with Elvie, the manufacturer of the innovative wearable breast pump.
About LactApp
Founded in 2016 in Barcelona, LactApp is the creator of the first mobile application on breastfeeding based on Artificial Intelligence. With over 450,000 users in 177 countries, it answers more than 100,000 weekly queries in a personalized way. LactApp has also launched the first university postgraduate course on lactation in Spain and has opened a clinic in Barcelona dedicated to the health care of women and babies in 2019. In addition, it conducts scientific research on breastfeeding and has initiated the first study in the European Union and one of only three in the world on the use of the Covid-19 vaccine in breastfeeding women
