Philosophy
Since 2009, I have been happily supporting growing families during pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and the first years. My work began centered around the postpartum period, through postpartum doula work, massage, and lactation support—but I attended births for about a year as well. It is always amazing to be able to witness the bonding and breastfeeding and chestfeeding that happens in the first hours and days after birth. These births and families, and my volunteer work with LaLeche League, inspired me to become a lactation consultant, certifying as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in January 2018.
Through my training, private clients, and volunteer work, I have become deeply motivated about supporting families with creative gender, sexuality, or family-structures. I have made it a goal of mine to educate myself so that I have the skills needed to support these families.
Bio
My background experiences have always centered around birth, parenting, and child development, beginning with a 720-hour massage therapy course at the National Holistic Institute and training in pregnancy and postnatal massage. I continued my interest in the physiology of parenthood while studying ceramics at the California College of the Arts, and took classes in child development at San Francisco State.
Pregnancy and birth have been astounding and full of fascination for me since I can remember, the fact that we can grow an entire human from just two halves of a cell never stops amazing me. My own experiences of birth, and my birth and postpartum work have only fueled my passion. My hope is to be able to support families in their time of transition. I am here to listen to and respect, not to judge, the decisions you make for your family, and will work hard to help you accomplish your goals, whatever they may be.
The birth of my first child inspired me to step into working with families postpartum. I worked as a postpartum doula and massage therapist from 2009 to 2010, before giving birth to my second child at home in 2011. During a brief seclusion in the beautiful green countryside of the southwest of England during 2012 and 2013, I volunteered at a local children's center in Devon, training in and acting as a Peer Breastfeeding Counselor, and undertaking a course in doulacare by Kate Woods of Conscious Birthing, accredited by DoulaUK.
Since 2013, I have been working as an independent doula in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, expanding my services to include pre-natal and postpartum support and massage. I also truly believe that families know what is best for them, and I support families however they chose to feed and care for their babies.
Since January 2018, I have have been consulting as an IBCLC, seeing clients for lactation visits, as well as combining lactation and postpartum work. I also offer telehealth lactation visits as of March 2020 and am working to increase the breastfeeding and chestfeeding information that I can provide to parents online.
