Lactation Consulting Services
Lactation Consulting Services at The Village Collective are provided by Harriet from The Breast Help.
Whether you're looking for support before your baby's born (planning and education), or require 1:1 assistance with any breastfeeding challenges, Harriet is here to empower, support and guide you.
Harriet is your pillar of support as you feed your baby (however you choose to feed them - we know it can be hard) and bond with your baby.
Harriet is one of The Village Collective Founders, she provides all Lactation, Child + Family Health and Midwifery services to families all over the coast in our clinic, via Telehealth and through home visiting.
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Credentials
2011
Bachelor of Midwifery
2018
Graduate Certificate Child + Family Health
2022
Motherhood Matters Pathway 3 Mentorship Program for IBCLC Exam
95 Hours Advanced Lactation Specific Education for IBCLC Exam
Focussed Clinical Breastfeeding Support: Masterclasses in Neuroprotective Developmental Care (May 2022)
Advanced clinical skills for the management of cry-fuss, sleep and mood problems: Masterclasses in Neuroprotective Developmental Care (June 2022)
NDC Accreditation pathway completed in 2022 to provide safe, evidence based support to families for issues ranging from sleep, breastfeeding, cry/fuss problems and family mental health. Possums Charity has since dissolved and no longer provides accreditation for NDC (2023)
Birth Trauma Training for Birth Workers - by Dr Erin Bowe
2023
Craniosacral Therapy (CST1) - The Upledger Institute
Cranial Nerve Assessment for Infant Feeding
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant certificate obtained
2024
Laser Safety Officer certificate
Oral Assessment Workshop (Motherhood Matters)
2 Day Course: "Breathe, Feed, Eat, Sleep" (Centre of Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy)
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IBCLC® lactation consultants are recognised throughout the world as holding the premier global credential in the lactation care profession.
They are;
Knowledgeable about up-to-date evidence-based practices in lactation as demonstrated through a rigorous exam process and re-certification at 5-year intervals.
Focused on preventative care.
Experienced in a wide variety of complex breastfeeding situations.
Competent to assist mothers with establishing and maintaining breastfeeding, even in difficult and high-risk circumstances.
Sensitive to the needs of both mothers and children as they work to help mothers meet their breastfeeding goals.
Ethical in their practice, held accountable to Standards of Practice and a Code of Ethics, and working within a defined Scope of Practice.
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Lactation consultants offer a broad range of services, which include everything from:
Teaching a new mum how to hold and position her baby on the breast,
Assess the suck, swallow, breathing and tongue function of an infant,
Help increase or decrease milk supply, and
Help manage nipple and breast pain, feeding difficulties and breast infections.
They can also devise special feeding strategies for premature babies, multiples, or infants with medical conditions such as heart disorders, cleft palate or tongue ties.
Referrals are not required.
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Harriet can help with all of your feeding, infant development, sleep and settling needs with a special focus on supporting your baby to achieve their optimal function.
Felicity Hughes is a Lactation Consultant IBCLC, RM in Private Practice. Feeding services include but are not limited to:
Positioning & Attachment issues
Sore and damaged nipples
Assessment of oral function, dysfunction, rehabilitation
Tongue tie -Suck Assessment, Referral, baby friendly pre and post care and support
Delayed lactation/low supply or over supply
Blocked ducts, mastitis, thrush
Raynauds syndrome, Vasospasm of the nipple & breast pain
Breast refusal, difficulty latching, reluctance
Previous breast surgery
Weaning and re-lactation advice
Harriet holds further training in Infant feeding OMT practices, Functional Movement and Cranial Sacral Therapy. Harriet is a member of the professional body of Lactation Consultants of Australia and New Zealand (LCANZ) and is regularly involved in ongoing professional development across a wide range of areas both within Australia and internationally.
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Hello there!
I’m Harriet, I live on the Central Coast with my husband, miniature sausage dog and three boys. I have been in the world of Midwifery for the past 14+ years working in Public & Private Hospital settings and attending Homebirths across the Central Coast as a secondary Midwife.
I am the owner and founder of The Breast Help offering Lactation Consulting and Parenting Services both face-to-face and virtually.
I love to share my knowledge on all things pregnancy, birth, babies, breastfeeding and early parenthood to families wanting to learn more or needing support during challenging times.
With my credentials, I am able to offer support to families from pregnancy all the way into parenthood - It’s a fantastic thing to create these professional relationships with wonderful families and support them in different ways from when their baby is in the womb up and throughout the formative early childhood years.
For me as a new mum in 2016, I was already an experienced Midwife but I struggled with aspects of breastfeeding that didn’t include just my baby’s weight. He gained beautifully, but I could not articulate why it didn’t feel like it was all functioning the way I felt it should! We experienced quite the spectrum of challenges, but the responses I would receive from health professionals were dismissive to my concerns and made me feel like my experience of breastfeeding wasn’t valuable.
Alongside the breastfeeding challenges, I had a baby that didn’t value sleep the way I was told babies “should” sleep. After seeking professional sleep help I quickly realised that the words “evidence-based gentle sleep” was a marketing term that didn’t fit my own definition of those words. I knew sleep training was not for me as I wanted to respond to my baby and breastfeed on demand, so when I had the time and space (after my boys left babyhood!) I sunk deep into studying holistic sleep approaches and became accredited in Neuroprotective Developmental Care. The challenge I faced as a Mother wanting to both breastfeed and optimise sleep drove me to offer all that I have learnt to help families like my own. I am now that space in between sleep training and “doing nothing”.
I have continued my studies to offer holistic perspectives on all the challenges I help families troubleshoot. Craniosacral Therapy Foundations course Level 1 with Upledger Academy was completed in 2023 and compliments my clinical background well. I’m excited to start chipping away at the list of courses I have lined up for 2024 which include LLLT Laser Safety, Holistic Mastitis Care and many more.
My goal is to provide the type of support for families that I needed as a new Mother. Non-judgemental and approachable, sharing information and advice that can be added to the parenting toolkit to make any transition a little bit easier.
I was genuinely blessed to meet and work with an experienced IBCLC Mentor - Felicity Hughes (even though I met her years too late!) - the way she spoke, her knowledge and the direction she helped me find was exactly the answers I needed. With her background of knowledge, she was able to educate me on not only what I experienced, but ways of supporting families with a holistic approach that thinks “outside the box” and why all motherly instincts are trustworthy!
As my education around babies, biology and breastfeeding continues to grow, it allows me the space to offer holistic family-focused lactation and parenting consulting services in a way that I am very proud of. The more I study lactation, the more I love it. Our bodies are truly amazing!
Harriet