I'm really good with the breastfeeding support. Just so you know. And if you choose not to breastfeed, know that I do have clients who choose formula and I support them in how to best formula feed. FYI that needs to be done correctly as well and many times its done incorrectly. 

Experience! I can't get everyone breastfeeding and/or breastfeeding exclusively, I can never promise that. But with hard work and dedication, I can get nearly everyone. I've lost count on the moms I have been able to get to their nursing goals, its at least 200-something. I've had so few moms who wanted to breastfeed exclusively and were not able to. But they still breastfed and then supplemented when needed. When exclusive breastfeeding isn't going to work, its important to not let dogma overshadow what's best for the baby. Yes breastfeeding is best, but there are instances where supplementing is needed to keep a baby properly nourished. Just like we shouldn't avoid a cesarean over some political dogma when it's a life saving procedure, we shouldn't avoid supplementation in the same way either. We also need to not feel guilty about our choices. In both instances, women need access to choices and information so that they can make the best decisions for the health of their babies and themselves. 

My lactation support skills come from a serendipitous unfolding. I took my CLC, Certified Lactation Course and certification in 2012. But I attempted to do it in 2011 and missed it for a birth. Its a 45 hour course but if you miss even one day, you cannot take it. So I was really bummed and then I borrowed the textbook from a friend who did take it. I studied it with all her notes in the margins. Then a year later, in 2012 I took time off of being on-call to make sure I would make it, and I took the class myself. Having already poured over the book for a year, it was a much deeper learning then I see most people getting from the class. 45 hours of breastfeeding information being thrown at you over 5 days is really hard to absorb. But for me, it was over a year. 

Next, yes I breastfed too. And I had many of the breastfeeding problems. But besides pain, engorgement, mastitis, supply issues, getting pregnant again, and nursing a second, I also experienced the emotional side of breastfeeding. Those very sensitive first few days home with a new baby. The way your emotions feel like they will crack open and you are just swallowed in tears. The fragility and fear. The amazing and wonderful yet terrifying responsibility of keeping this baby alive. Plus, that was a long time ago for me. I started nursing in 1998. And while I didn't become a doula until 2010, after I figured out my own breastfeeding, I was helping my friends as well, and going to breastfeeding support groups, talking and listening to women, and really building my knowledge.

Next, farm life. I'm a city girl, as my mom said the first time she put me on grass as a baby I cried. But then she quickly remedied that and gave me lots of nature exposure. In summer camp I learned how to milk goats, which also came in handy when my aunt moved upstate many years ago and started getting sheep and cows. There are differences to sheep, goats and cows, but the science of lactation is the same. They get engorgement, mastitis, and emotional issues to. When I house sit for her I milk the animals. I learned a lot from this and I get it must have been more intuitive to breastfeed back in the day if you grew up milking other mammals. I was always good at manual expression, even with my first baby. I found it easier than pumping, which I never hear from anyone else. Now when my aunt has had trouble with her animals and lactation, she sometimes calls me to consult because soooo much overlaps, lactating domesticated mammals have so much in common. 

OK, that was fun, I have to run, I have two moms needing breastfeeding support right now!

My birth and breastfeeding support practice is multifaceted. I have my private practice, I'm a member of the NYC Doula collective, I work with the By My Side Doula Program, and I'm a Birth Assistant for Shar LePorte and Carol Bues of Midwifery Care NYC. 

Most of you will find me through my private practice. These are my clients that find me directly through my website, referrals from their friends and family who are my past clients, and from their doctors, midwives, childbirth educators, acupuncturists, etc. This is the mainstay of how clients find me. Most of my clients are delivering at hospitals and birthing centers. About 1 in 10 delivers at home. 

Next is the NYC Doula Collective. In the collective I'm the membership director and a mentor. In this group we have provided an amazing structure of mentoring and tiers. There are 5 tiers and doulas are in tiers based on their experience. Tiers 4 & 5 are called the mentor collective, and doulas from tiers 1-3 choose one doula from the mentor collective to be their mentor. It's an amazing opportunity for new doulas to have support of a mentor and a doula community as they build their practice and learn how to be the best doula they can. I joined the collective about 4 years ago and worked my way up from tier 1 to 5. I now have 6 doulas that I am officially mentoring. I also have a few more doulas in the community who have sought me out as an unofficial mentor. I love mentoring, it's an opportunity for me to learn and engage in birth work at a deeper level. 

The By My Side doula program is a grant funded program through the Department of Health and Healthy Start Brooklyn. Moms in this program are very low income and very high risk. The clients do not pay to participate and the program pays the doulas. The "high risk" I'm referring to is the fact that they live in certain zip codes in Brooklyn. Why? Because in these zip codes in Crown Heights, East New York, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Flatbush, the maternal mortality rate for African American non-Hispanic women is drastically higher than the rest of the city. I only take a few clients from the program at a time. It is the most challenging part of my doula practice. Many of my clients through the program are homeless and often facing the biggest challenges. I have to really dig deep to figure out how to best help them. I love being able to make a difference here with these communities that really need it. Here's a link to an article written up about our program: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/community-doulas-changing-how-low-income-moms-give-birth_n_3894995.html

Then last but not least is I'm a birth assistant for Shar LaPorte and Carol Bues homebirth practice Midwifery Care NYC. Years ago I was also an assistant for home birth midwife Marcy Tardio. Being a birth assistant at homebirths is a wonderful opportunity for me to advance my birth skills and knowledge. As a birth assistant I am working for the midwives in a clinical role as opposed to the emotional support for the client that a doula provides. As an assistant I am responsible for a completely different set of responsibilities. No I don't want to be a midwife, but I really enjoy working along side them and getting to do what I call "clinical light."  The midwives have three birth assistants, we work on shifts so that we can each prioritize our private clients and other work. This work is on another level of understanding and experience of birth. There is so much to learn about births and experience is the best teacher. I want to see it at every angle and keep learning!

I started doing breastfeeding support in 1999 shortly after I had my first baby in 1998. It was a natural extension of being in the breastfeeding community myself. When I became a professional doula in 2010, I learned that I have a very intuitive and natural ability to support breastfeeding very well. I've since added my CLC to my name and I continue to study breastfeeding and postpartum and improve on my skills. I've been able to help so many women breastfeed and I'm often referred to women who were not my birth clients to come and help them breastfeed successfully. I hear from clients weeks and months after their births to continue the support and follow up with their breastfeeding as well. I love doing breastfeeding support. It's so amazing to help a new mom go from "I can't do this" to texting me her breastfeeding photos with pride!