I love babies. That’s where my story begins. I love babies and love seeing them grow. I love motherhood, too, from pregnancy to childbirth to breastfeeding, all of it. It is the most profoundly beautiful thing in the world, and it is my mission to make the experience of it as wonderful as possible for every woman and child. 

 

My own journey began with the birth of my first child, when I had trouble after trouble with nursing, yet received very little in the way of help with lactation. My son was tongue tied. I got mastitis three times. I pushed through and we breastfed for over a year, but it was not the pleasant and magical experience I had hoped for.

 

A year after my son was born, I went to medical school at Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lynchburg, VA, where I learned absolutely nothing about lactation and breastfeeding. It was as frustrating as it was eye-opening. Doctors are not trained in this! How, then, were mothers to get the help they all needed? Thus, the seed was planted to become an expert in the subject. 

 

Eventually, I graduated from medical school and matched to the residency in Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine at Michigan State University. There I had the good fortune to work with some physicians who knew the mechanics of the human body, even the neonatal human body, so well that I was finally able to understand the root causes of so many of the problems women have with breastfeeding. That lit a fire in me. I learned all I could, dug through research, attended conferences, and even became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. My practice has focused on helping pregnant women be as free from pain as possible going into childbirth, on helping them to recover as quickly as possible afterwards, and especially on helping those newborn babies to overcome whatever musculoskeletal obstacles might stand in the way of successful breastfeeding, whether those be skull compression, neck strains, jaw irregularities, torticollis, or plagiocephaly. 

 

I now have five beautiful children, all of whom I have breastfed. Each child was different, with different challenges. It is my goal to help women overcome their challenges, in order to help them and their babies to have as happy and healthy a relationship as possible. 

 

In my free time, I enjoy doing embroidery, cooking, gardening, and spending time with my husband and five children.