I am a wife and mother to three beautiful children; who were all exclusively breastfed! Growing up I never saw anyone breastfeed their child or pump, and there definitely were no hand expressions taking place. No one talked about it. It wasn’t until I became a mother that I learned about breastfeeding and all of its benefits.

I told my husband it only made sense that I breastfeed It’s one of the many gifts that God has given me, and plus it is what my ancestors did! I did just that when I gave birth to my daughter in 2016. She latched on perfectly, I tried to use a breast pump and that was a failure, and that sh*t hurt! No one (midwife, doctor, ob, or nurse) told me about flange sizes until 2020! If I needed to express any milk I would hand-express it because I was traumatized by the pump.

Fast forward to 2019, I had another little baby and he did not latch on as seamlessly as his sister did. Long story short-he had amniotic fluid in his lungs, so he did not stay latched on for more than 5 seconds. Once the nurses did a shift change, our new nurse gave him a few pats on his back he was fully engaged! Listen I am not sure what it is about my boys but they had such a challenging time with latching on. And last but not least my mother's days baby had the strongest latch I had a moment where I thought ‘‘I am not going to be able to exclusively breastfeed him”!

I quickly asked my midwife what could be the issue did he have a tongue or lip tie (oh this was something foreign to me as well)? She said no, let’s try some readjusting and give it some time it’ll loosen up he just has a really strong latch. Now at first, I was not sure if that was going to happen, but it did. I am still going strong with my breastfeeding journey.

Before becoming a breastfeeding specialist I received my associate’s degree in Early Childhood Management from Hillsborough Community College. Like most individuals, I knew nothing about the lactation profession. So, I chose to do more research centering on lactation and that is when I came across Lactation Education Resources (LER). LER has helped me become the best lactation consultant possible by teaching me the proper skills needed to provide high-quality, evidence-informed care to you.