My story
My busy nest
You can ask any woman who’s been pregnant or has nursed or expressed milk for their baby what that was like- and she can tell you with great detail- no matter her age or stage in life. When it works out well, we can be transported back in time and embrace those feelings and emotions as if they happened yesterday. The same can be said for when it doesn’t go well. Like many IBCLCs before me, I became passionate about helping mothers after experiencing my own trouble with breastfeeding. After the birth of my second son, I needed help and was ready to stop feeding altogether because of the pain I was having. I had done this before without a problem, so why the difficulty this time around? I reached out to a nurse IBCLC friend of mine that showed me how to work through our issues and it completely changed my life. I went on to have a great experience with my son and the two babies that came after him.
Phone a friend!
Every mother should have a friend to reach out to when they need help. Because of the missing generations of breastfeeding knowledge in our society today, many women have little to no support in the first days and weeks of breastfeeding. Knowledge, that in the past, came from our mothers, aunts, sisters and girlfriends. Those early weeks after delivery is the time when most mothers make the decision to “stick with it”, so receiving the right information at the right time can mean everything. When a mother doesn’t reach her personal goal for feeding her baby, she never forgets it.
Experience you can trust
I became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2009. I have worked in the hospital setting (both rural and urban), and at the community level as a private practice IBCLC and breastfeeding educator. At the state level, I've been engaged in systems-level support through work with birthing hospitals, employers, and community organizations to ensure that places where moms work, live, and play offer supportive infant feeding environments. I value each mother-baby dyad that I’ve worked with- they’ve helped shape my practice, and each consult teaches me more about the unique dance of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is a natural process, but like any other art form, it takes practice. I’m here to help.