Stories

Lucy’s Story

I first found Cindi after a friend referred her to me. My friend had found Cindi very helpful and, since my newborn baby, Theo, wasn’t nursing well because of a poor suck, I decided to give her a call.

We’d actually already seen a lactation consultant (LC) about this problem. She’d been helpful, but she didn't give us an overview of the course of action. What I mean is that she helped us address the issue of getting Theo on a syringe and she’d explained that next he’d be on a bottle and then a nipple shield with a supplementer, but only in a very technical sense. I needed to know in a more global sense what was happening each step of the way and what Theo needed to learn at each step.

I hated the supplementer as it was really difficult to use with the nipple shield. I was really frustrated, the LC I’d been using wasn't available, and I really needed help.

Cindi and I spoke by phone before we ever met (she listens very well) and, in that phone call, Cindi mentioned that Theo needed to get the reward of a big gush of milk from sucking on the breast. This immediate reward would help him make the connection, "Oh, I suck and I get milk." The prior LC had said to make him "work" for the milk in the supplementer and not to squeeze the bulb very often (if you squeeze, you get a burst of milk). Since birth, Theo had been very passive. And, he’d been getting even more passive with the supplementer because the milk would just drip into his mouth. I decided to try the squeezing that Cindi suggested. I started to reward Theo with a big gush of milk every time he sucked. When he sucked vigorously, I squeezed.

Not long after, when feeding him, I was feeling him suck and I was squeezing away. When I looked down, I realized that the supplementer tube had fallen out and he was sucking on his own! He nursed on the other side as well and I never gave him the supplementer back. Cindi came for a visit and was very reassuring about what we had accomplished so far. She made me feel like I knew what I was doing (which I didn't, but what I was doing was working). She provided a level of care beyond the technical aspects of feeding Theo. I then had the confidence to offer him the breast without the nipple shield occasionally and, two weeks after birth, we were plastic- and silicone-free.

 Cindi understood that it was a humbling and self-esteem eroding experience to teach my son how to breastfeed as I learned myself (while completely exhausted). Of the two lactation consultants and two nurses that worked with us on breastfeeding, Cindi was the most positive. I can't express how important that was for me—she let me drop my defenses about doing it “right” and restored my self-confidence.

Mary’s Story

When my daughter Bridget was born, she had a poor latch and was very sleepy, so she didn’t nurse well. On top of that, she was jaundiced so we had to supplement with formula for a little while until my milk came in. After my milk came in, she would only eat from a bottle.  She cried when put to the breast.  I was pumping daily to feed her breastmilk through a bottle.

The doula we’d used at our birth recommended Cindi. Cindi helped us come up with a plan to get Bridget breastfeeding. Since I wasn't able to get Bridget to latch, Cindi suggested that I spend time with her everyday "skin to skin."  This time was so valuable in helping me bond with the baby in the beginning when I could not feed her from the breast.

On several occasions, Cindi spent time observing the breastfeeding problems we were having. She was able to troubleshoot what was going wrong, but more importantly, she pointed out what was going right—that I was bonding with the baby, that she was growing, that she was so healthy.  It was important for me to hear these things because I felt so discouraged at the time.  Cindi was very calm and positive.  It also helped to be able to run things by her on email between visits.  She was very caring and non-judgmental.

This whole process was so emotional, I would not have been able to do it without Cindi’s support. Cindi was very good with Bridget, but she was also good with me.  She helped us to develop realistic goals for breastfeeding and provided lots of support and encouragement. 

Our daughter is now 15 weeks old and nursing beautifully. There were days when I didn't think we would get here, but we did with Cindi’s help.

Carmen’s Story

We first contacted Cindi because our pediatrician was concerned that our little Benjamin wasn’t gaining weight rapidly enough. Benjamin was jaundiced, so it was important that he eat often. Unfortunately, he was also sleepy, so anytime he was put to the breast, he fell asleep. We asked Cindi to assess Benjamin's latch and tell us how she thought he was doing overall with nursing.

Cindi watched Benjamin nurse, weighing him before and after in order to ascertain whether or not he actually consuming anything. The scale was particularly valuable to me. Having it show that Benjamin was consuming milk made me feel so much better.  Cindi also suggested Kangaroo Care—skin-to-skin contact for the two of us—and she showed us how to do it. That was a huge help, too.

At that point in time, I was sleep deprived and terribly worried about the baby's health and well being. Cindi's reassurance that what I was doing was actually working helped tremendously to make me feel so much better.

I have recommended Cindi to other nursing mothers. I tell them that I'm certain they will benefit from Cindi's breastfeeding expertise combined with her calm demeanor and gentle personality.

Suzanne’s Story

As a newborn, my son Aidan was very fussy while he nursed; he seemed like he was uncomfortable the whole time he was eating. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. He was gaining weight fine, he was pooping and peeing just fine, and his pediatrician wasn’t concerned—but something inside me just kept telling me that the breastfeeding wasn’t quite going the way it should be.

When Aidan was a little more than a week old, Cindi came out for a home visit. She spent a lot of time talking to us, watching Aidan nurse, helping me with positioning, and troubleshooting what was going on and why he was having difficulty. In all, she spent about two hours with my husband and I.

After spending that time with us, Cindi made some key observations. For one thing, she felt that Aidan’s suck-swallow-breathe pattern wasn’t quite coordinated yet. In addition, she thought that my let-down reflex was a little slow on one side and that he was getting fussy and pulling on and off out of frustration. She suggested that I switch back and forth, from side to side, during a feeding session and that really did seem to help.

Aidan had more issues a week or so later and I emailed Cindi. She came out for a second consultation and she decided that perhaps Aidan was having some reflux problems. She referred me to Mary Rose Tully, a lactation consultant at UNC Hospitals. Mary agreed that Aidan probably did have reflux. She was also concerned about Aidan’s tongue movement and suggested that I see a speech therapist for some exercises, which we did. All of these suggestions have helped Aidan and I immensely.

I’ve eliminated diary from my diet and with some positioning—holding him upright after he feeds and putting him to sleep at an upright angle—Aidan is doing very well. He’s gaining weight perfectly and the fussiness and discomfort has improved a lot.

Cindi was wonderful. In an email from her after our initial visit, she encouraged me to trust Aidan and trust myself. The idea that I should let Aidan be my guide was very helpful for me.

Hannah’s Story

Our son Caleb had lost a significant portion of his birth weight (a little over 10%) by the time we left the hospital, and as a result of that we had to introduce some formula (this was demanded of us by Caleb's pediatrician—we did not want to do it). 

As a result of that, he was refusing to breastfeed.  After three feedings in a row of no breastfeeding, my husband and I decided we needed a lactation consultant. We’d met Cindi when she came to our prenatal Bradley Class to teach a session about breastfeeding, and we gave her a call immediately.

Cindi came to our house and provided in-person training on breastfeeding, and was available for telephone and email consultation afterward. The first and most important thing that she shared was her calm, nurturing manner that set us all at ease.  She also reassured us about the quality of my milk, and she gave us the technique of switching back and forth between breasts when our son was not patient for the let-down of one side.

Our son is a very good feeder, and I believe that our outcome was absolutely more successful thanks to Cindi. Our progress was totally derailed prior to her visit, and she got us back on track.

Mir’s Story

Our son, Merrit, was born with a birth defect called Pierre Robin Sequence (PRS). Because of his PRS, Merrit had a retracted lower jaw, which prevented him from breathing or eating on his own. In addition, he also had a cleft palate. Shortly after his birth, Merrit underwent tracheotomy surgery, which placed a plastic tube in his neck so that he could breathe. After the surgery, Merrit needed to heal and couldn’t be held. It wasn’t until he was seven days old that I held him for the first time. That week was devastating for me, as I’d envisioned my hours-old newborn nursing at the breast in the magical moments after birth.

Unfortunately, Merrit’s complications meant that he would never be able to breastfeed. While this realization was hard for me to accept, I was determined that even if he couldn’t nurse at the breast, he would receive his mother’s milk! With a month-long stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, subsequent weekly visits to the hospital, and multiple surgeries ahead of us, I knew that the immune-boosting benefits of breastmilk would be very important for Merrit.

So for 13 months, Merrit received breastmilk—both through the gastric feeding tube that had been surgically inserted into his belly and with a Haberman feeder, a bottle specially designed for cleft-affected babies.

Using a rented hospital-grade breastpump, I pumped enough milk to supply all of Merrit’s caloric needs. One of my greatest allies during that time was Cindi. She encouraged me more than I can say!

She reminded me to take it one day at a time and to ask myself, “What can I do today to be successful at breastfeeding?” And the answer would come to me: make time to pump, drink enough water, get a nap, eat well. She encouraged me to give Merrit lots of skin-to-skin contact, which I did. When my milk supply needed to increase, Cindi shared useful strategies for boosting it.  And she reminded me to take an objective look at my son, who was displaying all the signs of a healthy, breastfed baby: ample weight gain, beautiful skin, bright eyes, and an eagerness to eat. She encouraged me to find my reward in holding him as he’d drift off to sleep, happy, satisfied, with a belly full of the best possible nourishment.

In one of my favorite emails from her—which I actually taped to the side of my breastpump—Cindi wrote: “Keep going! You are doing above-and-beyond amazing things in your task of new parenting. Your call to parenthood has not been an easy assignment yet I hear so much love in your voice for both your husband and child. This tells me you are a mom who understands the important stuff. I am so proud of you!”