Lactation Consultant & Breastfeeding Education

Hello!

I’m Peta, an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) and I am passionate about new parents.

My greatest joy is helping parents in the early days of parenthood and my particular interest and specialty is infant feeding.

I’ve got 2 beautiful children, Matilda and Angus and 2 crazy dogs, and they all keep me on my toes!

Since having my daughter I’ve become passionate about parents, birth and feeding. I had my daughter whilst living in New York. A birth full of interventions and people handling me.

My son Angus was born in a beautiful, peaceful home birth under the watchful eye of an incredible midwife. A journey I am so grateful I was able to achieve. And one that made me realise the raw power of women in birth.

Two very different experiences and ones that have taught me so much about the importance of decision making tools, feeling safe and secure and having good support around you. I prepped and prepped for my dream birth with my first and it went the complete opposite. In truth I hadn’t prepped too much for breastfeeding. I did the hospital feeding class and I remember feeling completely uninspired and I didn’t give it too much more thought. I didn’t have any breastfeeding role models so I always figured it was something I would give a go but if it didn’t work, I didn’t care. A few weeks before her birth I found out about the breast crawl, became inspired and was moved to tears and it immediately went into my birth plan. Thank goodness I did, because that breast crawl and our subsequent feeding journey became the thing that healed me from my birthing experience. A few stumbles in the beginning and a hospital nurse that made some excellent corrections and we were on our way. For such a highly medicalised system to date (NYC), the feeding flew well under the radar and wasn’t really even looked at. We made it through and my girl fed for 14mths. My son, born in the perfect home birth challenged me with breastfeeding! For 3 weeks he would scream for up to an hour before every single feed before finally latching and feeding. On repeat. Every feed. Every 2-3hrs. He very nearly broke me, but knowing what I know, we pushed on and we eventually got there. We ended up feeding for an amazing 32mths.

And so I became passionate about breastfeeding! In particular, about education, support and advocacy for breastfeeding.

As an IBCLC, I support women in those early days, weeks and months in regard to infant feeding, breast, bottle and everything in between. I support women after the birth of their baby and work to help Mums get a better latch, avoid or heal sore nipples, get away from shields, increase supply, decrease supply, wean, combo feed, emotional support and so much more. For some Mums that means supporting to exclusive feed, for some to combination feed and for some Mums working through the grief when unfortunately breastfeeding might not be the best journey for them. I would love to work with you and your family to help you get the best experience possible for your unique situation, whatever it may be.

I also teach an Antenatal Breastfeeding class called LATCH. I make it my goal to make it easy to understand, fun to learn and give parents tools to help them remember what works and why. It’s not your average feeding class for sure! We cover feeding, mental health, relationships, newborn care and what partners can do to support feeding in this intense but amazing time.

Working with families all through the pandemic as well as facilitating hundreds of classes and support groups has given me a huge insight into everyones different journey of parenthood, birth and feeding. I have held deep conversations with so many women, helping them debrief their birth and feeding experiences, worked through the tears of trauma, working towards letting go and building better experiences for their next birth. Together we make tweaks to your feeding experience and make things easier as well as increase your confidence in your feeding.

As I get older I find myself getting more political and I am a passionate feminist and advocate for women in parenting, birth, feeding and beyond. We deserve better. In 2022, I started a Federal petition and advocated for an increase of paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks and am very happy to say we won! Check out my blog page for that journey. I have more advocacy to do, stay tuned!

I am also a certified pre and post natal doula and infant massage instructor.

I am forever learning more every single day and will do so forever more because I can always learn more about feeding, parenthood and its unique journeys for each and every family that I am grateful allows me into their home.

In my spare time, I have recently taken up Salsa dancing, so you will find me on a dance floor, accidentally leading the guys, but giving it a good crack!

Much love

Peta x