What happens in our lactation consult?
Our lactation consultants are here to help you in making milk for your baby. Regardless of if you want to breastfeed, bottle-feed, or give some formula we will come alongside you to help you reach your feeding goals. You know what works best for you, your baby, and your family…we are here to support you.
You and your baby are unique. Your environment, lifestyle, priorities, and goals are specific to your family. At Thrive Lactation Center we are focused on making your lactation consult specific to the needs of you and your baby. We have developed a flow to our consults that helps you get the most out of your time with our lactation consultants and make sure we are answering all your questions.
Consult Steps
Conversation
When one of our lactation consultants arrives at your home we like to sit down with you and talk about how life with your baby is going. We will ask questions about and discuss how things have been going so far. We want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly of how your recent days have been going. This helps us know where you are currently. Then we discuss what you want your day with your baby to look like from a feeding perspective. What are your milk production goals? How do you want to feed your baby your milk?
Assessment
Our consultants assess your baby’s mouth to check for tight tongue and lip ties, tongue range of motion, jaw alignment, and suck strength. We also assess your breast for fullness, plugged ducts, nipple sores, or redness. We bring a scale to your house to weigh your baby to monitor weight gain and to get a feeding pre-weight.
Feeding
If your goal is to latch your baby to the breast, we will do an entire feeding together. We review how to get a deep comfortable latch, increase the amount of milk your baby takes, how to empty your breasts more, how to know when your baby is ready to switch sides, how to know when your baby is full or just getting tired. After the feeding, we weigh your baby again to see how many milliliters of breastmilk he drank during the feeding.
Pumping
During each consult, we review how to use your specific breast pump most effectively. We will teach you how to get more milk out, increase your milk supply, know that your flange fits correctly, and how to decrease discomfort while pumping.
Bottle Feeding
If bottle-feeding is part of your goals for feeding your baby or your pediatrician has recommended bottle feeding, we will review how to teach your baby to bottle feed slowly in a way that protects her breastfeeding skills. We will also discuss how much volume of milk or formula you should feed your baby in each bottle.
Feeding Plan
After helping with feeding at the breast, pumping, and bottle feeding we develop an individualized feeding plan for you and your baby. We provide clear instructions to follow for feedings and steps to take to help you reach your goals.
Ongoing Support
Included with each consult is ongoing messaging and phone support between appointments. We are here to help you reach your personal milk-making goals and sometimes that means you need questions answered quickly. Our consultants are readily available to help you!
Common concerns we can help you with
low milk supply or increasing milk supply
milk storage
using a breast pump
get a comfortable latch or painful latch
breastfeeding help
heal sore nipples
low pee and poop counts
weight loss or slow weight gain
tongue and lip tie assessment
feeding with short nipples, flat nipples, inverted nipples
using a nipple shield
using a supplemental feeding system
engorgement
plugged ducts
mastitis
baby that is fussy or sleepy at the breast
food sensitivity or elimination diets
back to work planning
weaning from pumping of breastfeeding
nursing strike
get baby to take a bottle
how to know your baby is getting enough milk
how to know when your baby is full
Client Testimonials
Over forty 5 star reviews on Google
“Make the call! I wish I'd had this kind of support with my first child, but I'm so happy to have it with my second. Sarah has been unbelievably helpful. No judgement, no agenda, just super useful tips and tools to reach my specific goals and troubleshoot my specific issues. I'll admit the prenatal informational appointment was a little overwhelming, but when the baby arrived I was SO much more prepared and knowledgeable. Curve balls in those first couple weeks were discouraging. But the in home visit was a game changer. Their support and knowledge has been amazing!”
“I can’t say enough good things about Thrive Lactation! I have a 1 month old baby and have been struggling with breastfeeding and unable to get him to latch since he was born. Sarah came to my house, listened to all my concerns, and answers all my questions. She is so knowledgeable and helpful. She was able to show me different techniques and after one visit help my baby latch on properly, and even help me with some clogged ducts I was struggling with. If you are having any lactation issues it is SO WORTH contacting her.”
“I 100% recommend Sarah. My little one is 3 weeks old and I have had so much trouble getting him to latch. He has a tendency to put his tongue in the way and not open big enough. After 1 visit I’m now able to get him latched every time and not get frustrated (me and my little one).”