A Peak Into The Life Of An IBCLC Practice Owner
- What inspired you to start your own private practice, and how did you grow it to include over 10 working lactation consultants?
- First off, I never planned on owning my own business. I started my career as a Registered Nurse. I figured I’d work in the hospital for a long time. Maybe transfer to an office or clinic, eventually. I found out what an IBCLC was shortly after my third baby was born at the very beginning of 2016. I knew instantly that it was for me. I blazed through my lactation hours and studied for the exam. At the beginning of 2017, I started in private practice with another lactation group. I enjoyed being with that group but I had a quick and unexpected departure in 2020 shortly after the pandemic started. It was a wild time. I knew I still wanted to do private practice. My only choice was to do my own thing. It wasn’t until 2022 that I reluctantly brought on my first contracted IBCLC. I was so nervous because I had been burned by the group I was with before but expanding my team ended up being the best thing. Private practice can be lonely. I now had someone to talk cases through. I had someone to cover my clients when I was sick or out of town so I didn’t get burned out. It breathed life into my practice again. Since then, I’ve slowly expanded our team to 10 IBCLC’s and we have a new group starting at the beginning of 2025. It’s so exciting to see these amazing women join and build their business while being able to set their own hours and make good money while doing it.
- What initially sparked your interest in becoming a lactation consultant, and how has that passion evolved over the years?
- When I had my first baby, I was extremely unprepared. I didn’t take a child birthing class. I didn’t even think about taking a breastfeeding class. I figured, “I’m a nurse. I know what I’m doing”. Well, I didn’t. I struggled with latch. I struggled with a low milk supply due to strict feeding schedules and the already mentioned bad latch. The lactation specialist in the hospital peaked in for about 5 seconds and said “looks good!”. At that time, lactation help outside of the hospital either wasn’t known or didn’t exist. We got through fine but before I had my second baby, I started working on the postpartum unit in the hospital. I took a required breastfeeding course because a huge part of my job was helping with those first latches after delivery. I learned, overtime, how to help someone else breastfeed which is very different from breastfeeding your own baby. Since then, I’ve learned just how important that base knowledge of breastfeeding is BEFORE your baby is born. I’ve also learned that not everything in the hospital or with your pediatrician is aimed towards you meeting your breastfeeding goals. The good news is that even with an unexpected c-section or NICU stay, you can still crush your goals with a little help and support.
- Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that solidified your commitment to supporting breastfeeding mothers?
- Back in 2020, when I was faced with that shattering breakup with the lactation group I was a part of I found myself in a position where I could either walk away from lactation and start something new or I could pick up the pieces and continue on. The year that followed that decision was very difficult. I was threatened with cease and desists. I was in a very difficult mental space that carried into a hard pregnancy with my fourth baby. My mind and body went through a lot that year. I ended up with some debilitating health problems that made it very difficult to push through as I balanced both being a mom and a business owner. As hard as that was, when I look back I see all the empathy I gained for families in the trenches who are going through really tough times in their lives. They often have a baby struggling to eat while they’re sleep deprived and healing after delivery. They push through hard times and I never stop appreciating the families that open up their homes and their lives to let us be a part of their journey.
- How has your own personal experience with breastfeeding influenced the way you practice and guide your clients?
- With my four children, no two birth or lactation journeys were the same. I was a different person from my first being a hospital birth and struggling to make enough milk to my fourth who was born at home was the hardest one to wean, by far. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach with lactation. Every journey is different and my goals for families are never more important than their own personal goals. My job is to talk with families, not force them down the path I think is best. For some families that looks like combo feeding, by feeding their baby both formula and breastmilk. For others, that looks like exclusively pumping. We meet families where they are and help them solve problems by talking with them, not at them. That odd breast pain? Let’s get curious and notice if it happens before feeds or during feeds or after feeds. Let’s maybe dive into your health history or the experiences surrounding your pregnancy and delivery. The whole body is connected and we have to look at everything as a whole.
- What aspects of lactation consulting bring you the most joy or fulfillment, and why do you feel so passionate about this work?
- I love meeting with families both in their home and also via telehealth. I feel confident, not that I have all the answers, but that I can listen and put together the puzzle pieces with them. What’s really lighting me up right now is helping new IBCLCs get started in private practice. Teaching them how to set up a business and how to do a home visit and how to do it all while setting their own hours. I worked every Thanksgiving and New Years Eve in the 6 years I worked in the hospital. I worked the night shift the majority of those years. I left my babies for 12 hour shifts to go help moms with their brand new babies. It was important work but now I get to set my own schedule and be with my family. I love teaching others how to do that too! I know I don’t have the capability to see all the families in the world and the IBCLCs on our team do amazing work. They take such great care of the families they work with.
- How do you manage and maintain consistency in the quality of care provided by each consultant in your practice?
- I expand our team only twice a year. New team members start in January and July. In the months leading up to those two dates, I interview the most amazing candidates and I only take the best of the best. This isn’t too hard to do because getting your IBCLC is a huge undertaking. It takes years of working with families and attending classes and completing courses and passing a big exam. It’s no small task and those who made it to the end of that road are generally just plain awesome and committed. Once on our team, we have weekly discussions on the newest and emerging information in the lactation world. We support each other by talking through hard cases. That open communication allows us the space to be our own individual provider who will click with different clients but still be on the same general page with our recommendations. I don’t believe in micromanaging. I see all the 5 star reviews that come in about our team and I’m so proud of the amazing work we all do.
- What challenges did you face when expanding your practice, and how did you overcome them?
- Part of being a business owner is being a problem solver. There are some new problems to solve on the daily. Truly. Some fires are bigger than others but in order to be a leader, you have to be willing to put yourself out there and try even when you don’t have everything just perfect. There are constantly email drafts and patient handouts that I want to improve but I have to focus on the things that actually move my business forward. One thing that really helped me work on my business and not in my business, is hiring an assistant, a bookkeeper and a biller. They help me not get bogged down with all the tiny details that are important but just not in my zone of genius. In the beginning years, I had to be all those things. I couldn’t afford the help but as I’ve slowly grown, I’ve invested into that help. 2024 was the year I really focused on expanding billing and also tightening the very loose screws on my bookkeeping. Would you believe that 2024 has been our biggest year of growth? Feeling confident about our bookkeeping and billing allows us to show up with confidence and clients can feel that confidence when deciding to work with you or someone else.
- How do you ensure a supportive and collaborative work environment among your team of lactation consultants?
- When I’m interviewing applicants, I’m very clear from the beginning that we are a team that supports each other. We share clients. We help each other through tricky cases. We even like traveling together! That vibe is so important to me and something I’m determined to continue even as we forge deeper into the double digits with our team. I’m a big believer that all ships rise with the tide. There are plenty of people having babies every single day and there’s more than enough work to go around. That “Community Over Collaboration” is my mantra. One of my favorite consults to do is actually business coaching. I love teaching other IBCLCs how to build their own awesome team.
- What strategies do you use for client acquisition and retention, and how do you stay competitive in the market?
- One huge thing for us has been the ability to accept so many major insurances. This coverage allows us to meet with clients multiple times and often at little or no cost to them! We like to go on the journey with our clients from prenatal, to that first latch, to establishing a great milk supply, to taking a bottle and pumping and returning to work, to starting solids, clear through weaning! We are there for it all. At this time we can accept UHC, BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, Tricare and some other major insurances. Another thing our clients really love about us is that we offer home visits. No getting out of the house with a young baby who is having trouble with feeding. No, we come straight to you and you get to sit in the comfort of the chair you always nurse in. Our team also stays up to date with the newest research and courses in the lactation world. We’re always learning and expanding our knowledge.
- What advice would you give to someone looking to scale their lactation consulting practice?
- - It’s a lot of work but you can do it. If I can do it, you can too. It will take some persistence and grit and time to build but it’s a niche market that honestly doesn’t have a lot of competition. Overall, there's not a ton of IBCLCs in the world when you compare it to how many new babies there are in the world. Yes, you can google your way through it all or you can also work with an established IBCLC to help you through the process (and please be willing to pay them for their time!). Right now, I’m working on a course for IBCLCs wanting to launch their private practice. It’s through Lactation Consultant Ed and I’m really excited to get this information out into the world, alongside my IBCLC friend Katie Clark.
- How do you balance the clinical aspect of lactation consulting with the administrative and business responsibilities of running a large practice?
- Most days, not very well. It’s a hard balance but my goal is to eventually just work one day of home visits and one day of telehealth visits every week. I’m still building to get to the point, financially, but that is my goal. For now, I rely on batchwork. I still have young kids and not a lot of availability. I don’t do one consultation every day or else that eats up my entire day. Instead, I block off Wednesdays and do my admin work that day. I also have a hard rule that I never work on Sundays. If there’s a day I need a nap, I take the nap. I’ve learned the hard way that bad work/life balance will take a toll on your physical and mental health. You must have boundaries. One non-negotiable for me is that I move my body every day either by going to the gym or going on an hour walk with my baby and my dog. I fuel my body with whole foods and stay hydrated with water. I get a full night's rest every night. I couldn’t do all these things when I had young babies. I was just in survival mode at that time! But there are different seasons and right now I can focus more on building my business.
This was taken from an interview I did with Rumble Tuff Breast Pumps.
For more information on Lactation Consultant Ed, visit us here: https://lactationconsultanted.com/