I knew Jamie personally before she became my lactation consultant, so I already knew about her big smile, welcoming personality and incredible joy at all-things-motherhood. I also knew how knowledgable she was about breastfeeding (Jamie can breastfeeds in a headstand; all I needed was to breastfeed on my couch so I figured I was in good hands). What I couldn't have known, before using her lactation services, was how well she was able to communicate that knowledge and how much she would change my entire breastfeeding (and birth!) experience for the better.
My husband and I met with Jamie and went through every single aspect of what to expect when breastfeeding. As a first time mom, I knew I wanted to breastfeed, I knew a lot of women had trouble getting their baby to "latch," and I had heard horror stories about how much breastfeeding hurt and how stressful it was. Basically, I was ready to give BF the old college-try, but I was completely lost and needed help. We sat down with Jamie and learned so much, including, critically, how to set ourselves up for success starting from the minute our baby was born. Jamie gave us a ton of information and, most importantly, a lot of really specific, useful advice. I wrote down everything she said during our session and basically wrote up a bullet-pointed "breastfeeding plan" that I brought to the hospital with me. I didn't even have a birth plan, but Jamie's information was so good I knew I wanted to have it with me.
I am so glad I had Jamie as a resource, and that I followed her advice. I took full advantage of the "golden hour" after birth; I knew what to say to the nursing staff and when/how to ask for it; I was ready for every single challenge that arose in the hospital, bc Jamie had run through a ton of different scenarios and potential issues; I trusted in my body's ability; and I relaxed and followed Jamie's instructions. Having Jamie's guidance meant I could just trust that breastfeeding would happen and enjoy my son's first few minutes/hours/days. It took a ton of anxiety off of the table.
My son was a preemie, and even with the extra challenges that can pop up for preemies and bf, I was successfully able to exclusively breastfeed for the first month, and transition after that to a combination of breastfeeding and pumping bottle-feeding with breastmilk that works for our schedule. Jamie came to visit us at home a few days after we left the hospital and, within 10 minutes, had "fixed" an issue with our son's latch that *three* separate lactation consultants at our hospital had been unable to resolve. She is the nipple whisperer I never knew I needed.
Aside from having great results, Jamie's calm, competent and supportive demeanor are everything you want in a lactation consultant. She was patient with my many questions and she was completely non-judgmental. I was worried about whether a breastfeeding advocate could take my questions about whether breastfeeding would work for me seriously; Jamie did. She answered all of my questions and gave me a ton of information to set me up for success.
My biggest problem is that now I have all of this information is that I constantly want to share some of the wealth. Since I won't be shouting unsolicited breastfeeding advice to strangers on the street, I wanted to write this review to encourage any/all expecting moms or breastfeeding moms to use Jamie as the incredible resource she is! With Jamie, your breasts are in great hands (ha). read more