Grow Strong

I believe that families should have the knowledge they need to make informed choices about how to parent their children. I believe all mothers should have access to appropriate support to recover following pregnancy and birth.

I feel this way largely because there was such limited support to help me meet my breastfeeding goals when my children were born. My first baby was born at 34 weeks, then I had twins born at 33 weeks. Both of these experiences of breastfeeding involved many tears, expressing to bring in my supply, nipple shields, more expressing, ineffective breastfeeding and eventual breast refusal. I am proud that I was able to continue to express for several months to provide my babies with some breastmilk, but I do wonder how those experiences would have been different if I knew what I do now. I grieved so much about not being able to carry my babies to term and then feeling like my body had failed me and them when I wasn’t able to breastfeed them.

My fourth child was born full term, and was a baby that needed a lot of input! She was happiest attached to the breast, and fed well. But she only slept when in contact with me. I tried so many things to change her, and again, I wonder what this experience would have been like if instead of trying to fight her to sleep all the time, I accepted that she had pretty low sleep needs and just got on with my day. She went on to breastfeed until she was four and a half years old. A pretty different breastfeeding experience!

I began training to become a breastfeeding counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association when my youngest was six months old. I have now been a counsellor for about 6 years. I felt like I still didn’t know enough about breastfeeding, so decided to then begin studying to sit the exam to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. I felt like this would fit nicely with the focus of my physiotherapy career, women’s health. Somewhere along the way though, I began seeing more paediatrics as a physiotherapist, and I realised that the three areas complemented each other well, and over time the idea for Grow Strong emerged. I wanted to have control over my time and the philosophy behind my work. My children are now all tweens, and they take up a lot of my time! I think as it should be, my family is my focus and my business a close second. So if I take a little time getting back to you, it’s because I am busy with my kids…