Meredith began her career as an Occupational Therapist in 2000 working in NICU and rehab settings specializing in feeding and swallowing disorders, failure to thrive, cleft lip and palate, and administering swallow studies. She added lactation into her career when she attended her first training the CLEC course in 2005 and went on to work in the NICU and well-baby units offering breastfeeding support as an internationally board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC). Since moving to Nevada she has a private practice offering lactation and feeding services and runs a weekly support circle.

Her Background:

Meredith grew up in N. Carolina, in Wilmington, NC. She grew up on the beach in a small town on large property with horses. She had lots of freedom as a child. She also lived in Colorado and now lives in Nevada.

When she was younger she wanted to be a veterinarian. She would shadow one of the local vets who was also her babysitter. It wasn’t until the end of high school that she changed her mind and wanted to be a pediatrician. She chose a small college that had a high rate of getting into medical school. She was on this path until she learned about Occupational Therapy. She was pre-med and met an OT talking about this line of work and she specialized in infant feeding and failure to thrive. Hearing her talk about this, she just felt this internal passion and soon after, she switched schools at that point. Her program had a specialized program that focused on infant feeding.

Was she breastfed?

She recalls having conversations with her mother about breastfeeding until she was pregnant with her second child. As part of her assignment, was to speak to her mother about her labor delivery with her 2 kids. Both times she had no problems breastfeeding. She had natural labors and breastfeeding went natural and easy. By 2 months though, she stopped breastfeeding largely because her pediatrician told her about formula and so she quite breastfeeding. It was touted as being easy, always readily available, not as much work and this was a common theme during that time period.

Preparing to breastfeed –

She took a Lamaze class which was the only classes that were available in the small town that she lived in. In one of the classes, a breastfeeding class was given. At the time, she was already working in lactation population on a well baby unit. She was not an IBCLC at the time, but was working with mothers who were breastfeeding. She did not have any friends who were breastfeeding and there were no postpartum support groups in new motherhood or breastfeeding. Meredith does say that she had some extra time on her hands during her first pregnancy and she remembers reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and What to Expect when Expecting. This is how she prepared for her breastfeeding experience.

Her first breastfeeding experience –

Meredith conceived quite easily and had a fairly good beginning to her pregnancy. However, midway through her pregnancy,
She was had swelling and edema. They thought it was probably a combination of being at 10,000 feet altitude, on her feet 12 hours day, long commute to work. At about 32 weeks, She was Life Flight flown down on a helicopter to Denver to be induced. This all came as a shock as she had no known risk factors for having what turned out to be pre-elampsia and HELLP syndrome. She was induced and 44 hours later had her daughter who was was taken to the NICU. It was a few days until she saw her.

HELLP: life threatening pregnancy complication. It first may seem like pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure). The H stands for hemolysis, which is the breaking down of red blood cells. EL stands for elevated liver enzymes. LP stands for low platelet count. This is a very serious condition for pregnant women and the treatment for it is the delivery of their baby.

It is interesting for her to note.She had worked in the NICU for a while, however, now she was on the other side of the situation with a baby that she could not be with. Meredith was very sick and on some heavy medications and had a severe pph. She had a very difficult recovery and had low energy as she had been on bedrest for 2 weeks before she was even born. She found out 10 days later she had retained placenta and had surgery that day to remove the fragments.

They brought her to her room and up until then she had only been fed her colostrum via a NG tube. They helped put her baby on her breast and to her and the nurses surprise, her baby latched right on. She just seemed to know what to do and they left the hospital with her breastfeeding. Meredith did have some health issues with her daughter as she did not gain well and had reflux issues and food allergies, but they went on to breastfeed for 3 years.

Mother-led weaning with her daughter at 3 years old –

She was soon to turn 3 years old. So she had weaned her waking nursings. Her husband fed her breakfast and she was fine with not nursing. She ended up cutting out the naptime – this was hard. She had to work hard at distracting her. The last feeding she weaned her from was the nighttime one. This was a discussion that she talked to her daughter about a lot. Her daughter wanted a Cinderella princess dress and she was going to get this when she was done with her nighttime “milkies.” They bought the dress, had the discussion, there was a bit of tears that night and the next, but after that they had a routine that replaced the milk. Her daughter actually did fine. Meredith said that she did not do as well as her daughter did. She realized later on that she probably had some depression associated with hormonal changed during this weaning time. On the plus side, she was able to expand her diet which made her happy and she was able to now go out with her friends and have a drink and enjoy herself in a way that she had put on hold for a while.

Breastfeeding her son:

She had quite a few years of infertility and miscarriages and surgery in between her 2 babies, so they are 6 years apart. She decided on a midwifery practice and chose a hospital that could handle a preterm infant. He was born 6 days past due date with a shoulder dystocia during her vaginal birth. Meredith also had pph and a retained placenta, which was handled right at delivery. She hand expressed milk at delivery and he was able to have this milk in the NICU. Within a few hours, she was wheel chaired down to see her son and soon after he was brought to her room. She was able to be with him from that point on.

Meredith tells us about her job –

She brings to her work as an IBCLC, her other profession as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. In addition to looking at the breastfeeding aspects of things during a consult, she asks a lot of questions and observes the baby self latches. This gives her an opportunity to observe how the baby is moving and searching for the breast.

Some common problems that she sees in her practice –

poor milk transfer
poor coordination
pre-term babies that need more time
tongue tie
downs syndrome
cleft lip
cleft palate

Contact

Website:      Nourishnevada.com

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