I'm Here For It - For You

On Getting Better

Jun 26, 2024

I cannot seem to get my vision and purpose into a box lately.

I just can’t put the right words around it, even though I know it in my heart.

Welcome, welcome to Evolve Lactation. If you’re new here, I’m so glad you are reading, and I thank you. If you’ve been around, thank you for returning again and again.

This is a space created to inspire you, to connect you to others, and to give you that little push you need to grow and thrive in your lactation career and practice.

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Without it, you’d be fine. You could still be the lactation care provider you are today or aspire to be.

The problem is that we’re learning more and more about what causes burnout in people who work in caregiving fields, and without support and encouragement, you, just like the parents you support on their lactation journeys, may not be able to sustain what it takes to meet your goals.

In order to prevent burnout from happening in the first place, you need to have a clear sense of purpose AND you need to have the skills to zoom in or out when you need to in order to maintain your sense of fulfillment in your work. It’s all about putting it in context.

I’m good at that! I actually love doing it. It helps me understand things better when I have to explain something first in detail, then place it into its proper context. It’s like constantly zooming in and out with the lens of your camera so that you can see different elements of your subject.

I created Evolve Lactation as a community because I want you to be experience fulfillment - to know your purpose and to state your mission and vision.

I want you to learn resilience so you can keep on pursuing your mission and vision for as long as you want. (And to remember that being resilient is NOT the same as being tenacious or being persistent or committed - forcing yourself to keep going forward is not growth)

I want you to feel like you are always getting better at facilitating and supporting breastfeeding and lactation

I think the reason I was struggling with getting my own vision and purpose into a box and getting clear on how to explain it is that it’s a little off-center from what most lactation consultants do, and I can’t find anything with which I can compare it.

I see it now: my purpose is serving you so that you can best serve the larger world of breastfeeding.

What I offer and what I create in order to serve you is a really fluid thing: the resources I dream up and share with you change all the time.

The consistent part is that I craft messages specifically for you. I work very hard to be clear that I am talking to you, the aspiring or current lactation care provider - not pregnant folks or newly postpartum families. I have other venues and accounts where I do that, but not here. This is for you. (I get it; you might be BOTH a lactation care provider and a lactating person - don’t worry, I’ll keep that in mind, and if you ever find that you are feeling disrespected or unheard in any way from any perspective, please tell me.)

I do this - serve and support YOU - because I know you need it. I hear from so many of you who need to know you are doing the right thing.

You ask me to help you clarify things that others leave unclear. You tell me about the challenges of transitioning from former roles to new ones in lactation and integrating previous knowledge and expertise with what you are now learning about lactation.

You have responded to my book by saying that it has restored your own faith in breastfeeding as a system and given you hope that we can impact it on a global scale.

You invest in coaching sessions with me where you tell me the stories of your vision and what led you into lactation support and what you need next in order to implement that vision.

You engage with my writing right here and with my podcast episodes, saying that you needed to hear whatever I shared right at that moment.

So that’s what I do: I listen for you to tell me what you need.
I’m here for it.

I’m here for you when you are the aspiring lactation care provider who is just starting out, figuring out how to study and train and how to navigate the pathways.

I’m here for you when you’re studying for the exam, hoping you can prove what you’ve learned.

I’m here for you when you’re a novice in the field, needing the connection with another IBCLC, wishing your clinical mentor was still around to work with you.

I’m here for you when you’re really getting in the groove, finding your own area of expertise and wanting to talk through how to make a plan for specializing in your lactation niche.

I’m here for you when you are becoming seasoned and looking for something novel to sink your teeth into - will it be conducting research, writing for a journal, teaching or mentoring aspiring lactation consultants?

I’m here for it all.

If I don’t know the answer to your question, I probably know where to find it OR I know who to ask about where to find it.

My purpose is to be there alongside you so that you know you’re not alone and that your work in the field of lactation support matters.

Here’s how I’ll keep showing up for you:

I’ll keep writing right here so that you’ll always have this library of inspiration and resources

I will be adding voiceovers to my posts, including past posts
I’ll share some PDFs I’ve created that are designed to inspire you and give you some exercises to support your growth - things like uncovering your purpose, mission, and vision in lactation work, declaring your practice philosophy, integrating your personal lactation experiences in a healthy way, and many more things
I will share links for other awesome things I see out there in the world and things that are helping me and might help you
I’ll keep thinking of ways to serve you - and I’ll keep listening for you to tell me what would be helpful for you!

Thanks for sticking with me! That shows me that you’re here for it, too.