Melissa has been helping with lactation through La Leche League as a volunteer since 2012 and professionally as an IBCLC since 2018. She has been a student midwife, midwife’s birth assistant and doula since 2017. As a former certified teacher, it is important for her to educate her clients and other professionals in order to achieve optimal health outcomes. She has worked with over 100 families each year assessing lactating dyads experiencing difficulties. She addresses problems the dyad has encountered through assessment, education, counseling, exercises and appropriate referral where needed.  She has seen varying approaches to lactation difficulties and likes to suggest an evidence-based approach to having informed consent conversations for all new families by teaching other care providers the things she has learned in practice as an IBCLC. She is also a wife, and a homeschooling mom of 3 children, 2 dogs, 4 cats, and a bearded dragon.