Days after my first baby’s birth, I frantically called lactation consultants at 2 in the morning with a screaming and hungry newborn. I googled “bleeding nipples” and “painful latch” and resigned to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.
I was flabbergasted that something that had been touted as "natural" could feel so confusing, difficult, and demanding. I needed support. I couldn't do it alone. You shouldn't have to do it alone. The lactation consultant who helped me through nursing my first eventually became a mentor. Having worked in fertility education for years prior, I quickly realized that postpartum was just the next chapter of reproductive life that our culture seemed to be failing families. It is a privilege to serve families in the intimate postpartum period and beyond. Background and Training
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I now live in Bloomfield with my family where I serve the Northern Jersey and NYC area. My love of anatomy and hormonal health began in 2011. In my final year of film school at Montana State University, I wrote and directed my thesis film, Miscontraceptions - which later screened in the Northwest Filmmaker's Festival in Portland, the FLIC Film Festival, and at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. Shortly after graduating university, I married my husband, packed up a u-haul, and moved across the country to New York City. Throughout my first pregnancy and transition into parenthood, I studied and completed the FEMM teacher training program beginning in 2015. After the birth of my daughter in late 2015, like many of my clients, I experienced a difficult postpartum period. In 2018, I trained as a doula with DONA and in 2019 I completed Empire Lactation's Breastfeeding program. After 4 years of clinical hours, classes, and studying, I passed the International Board exam for Lactation Consultants in 2020. In private practice now, I teach adults and teens how to chart their cycles for health management and effective, hormone-free family planning. As an IBCLC, I provide in home and virtual breastfeeding support. I am proud to be part of The Lactation Network. As a published writer, my favorite topics are reproductive and maternal health and you can find my portfolio here. While I love anything fertility, birth, and breastfeeding related, I enjoy terrain park snowboarding, longboarding around my neighborhood, and a good espionage novel. |