About Nourished Families

It’s nice to meet you, I’m Liz.

Before I ever had children of my own, I was that friend or family member everyone called on to help them and give tips or advice when they brought their new tiny human home. I was the babysitter. The give-the-Mama-a-break diaper changer. I filled more freezers with premade meals than I can count and started many libraries with my favorite children’s books that people still comment on. I always have and will always love an infant. To me, the newness, beauty, and stay-where-you-put-them phase of infancy is mystical.

But the truth is deciding to get pregnant was not an easy one for me and my partner.  At the time I was a behavioral therapist for children with Autism and my youngest nephew had just been born with a rare genetic disease.  We were faced with a lot of what could go wrong, but after genetic testing, we overjoyed to begin to expand our family.  Thankfully, getting pregnant was easy for me.  I had walked the infertility walk with so many women close to me and seen how hard it is for the birthing parent as well as their partner.  I, along with so many of my girlfriends would laugh that the pregnant part was the easy part. Ohhhh, how naïve I was. Not only was I sick not just in the morning but all day long.  Amy Schumer and Megan Markle, I feel you. I had gestational diabetes, PUPPS, could not sleep ever and do not even get me started on the havoc my growing chest wreaked on my back.  All of that was a breeze compared to what was about to happened next.

At 28 weeks, I developed preeclampsia that went undiagnosed and caused me to lose our first child, and almost cost me my life. But the moment the doctors put my sweet boy in my arms, I had never felt love like this. I knew I needed to keep trying to make a baby I could take home from the hospital to nurture and watch grow. Thanks to good friends and planning, we hired a postpartum doula for this first baby. Super Doula Theresa, as she will always be known to me. She helped me navigate all the devastation and pain of losing a child. When it came time for my daughter to be born thirteen months later, Super Doula Theresa helped me set the tone for the kind of mother I wanted to be and navigate all the ups and downs that come with being a mom in real-time. When my son was born three years later, she returned to give me time alone with both kids, guided me in showing big sister how to “help” with bath time, and again supported me through the crazy emotions that come with adding another heartbeat to the mix.

After years of being a stay-at-home mom, with my children beginning school, I wanted to return to working outside the home. I was still the friend or family member talking the new parents in my life off the ledge when they brought home their 24-hour need machine. Only now, I could also lend an ear and a safe space to those who had experienced any trauma regarding pregnancy, loss, parenting, and beyond. I felt and still feel called to do this work as certified postpartum doula.

What I soon realized as a postpartum doula was that one of the biggest sources of anxiety and stress was feeding.  So many moms-to-be and new moms worry about what their feeding journey will look like and predetermine whether they are a “good” parent or not by the choice made around bottle or breast.  I also discovered that there is a lot of outside noise and misinformation around feeding, again whether breast or bottle. All this insane pressure on women/ the feeding parent simply did not work for me.  I knew I had to add this education to bag of tricks and became a certified lactation counselor. My mission as a CLC remains the same as it does as a postpartum doula, finding what works best for your family and the walls of your home is what is most important.  There is a reason why on airplanes we are instructed to put out own oxygen mask on first. We cannot properly help anyone else if we can take a deep breath ourselves.  As your lactation consultant, I stride to take away all the voices and opinions others, educate, and together work to create a feeding journey that nourishes baby as much as the parents.