ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the essential skills required in healthcare professionals to enable them to provide mothers and their families with accurate information and skilled support, so that they can make informed choices, for example communication skills, reflective practice and evidence-based practice. It is essential that healthcare professionals develop good communication skills to enable them to provide mothers with accurate and relevant information to empower them to breastfeed with confidence. UNICEF BFI have strengthened their focus on communication skills and developed a series on having meaningful conversations with mothers by using signature sheets as an aid memoir. Reflective practice links theory to practice by consciously thinking through experiences. A variety of evidence can be used when deciding on the most appropriate line of care for mothers who are breastfeeding, but it must be assessed in conjunction with the individual event or situation, which will include psychosocial factors as well as physical ones.
