We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Levine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I feel like you often hear people say things like “Becoming a parent changed everything”, but for me it truly did change the entire trajectory of my life and my career up to that point. I had been playing music professionally since I was a young teenager, I had released albums and accomplished some bucket list stuff that seemed very important to my goals at the time. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I assumed that after a brief hiatus following childbirth that I would return to music. Instead, with the birth of my son began a total rebirth for me both personally and professionally. I went to therapy for the first time, I did a lot of work on myself and started exploring some ideas that had been simmering for a while. The further I got into the first year of parenthood, the more I realized how little I really knew. That part was hard. I had to grow and growth can be painful. But I loved being a mom so much and wanted to help other new moms who were meeting their new selves alongside their new babies. So on a lark I signed up for a postpartum doula training course, and from there I went on to really refine my skillset and advance my training in the fields of holistic sleep and lactation support.

I absolutely love my work now in a way that feels very natural. It fits into my life as a mother and allows me to support families who are sometimes in a very vulnerable place. When covid hit, I was working with families who were really in the trenches of deep isolation while trying to figure out new parenthood completely alone. It was an impossible time for new parents and I was so grateful that my own baby was 3 years old by then.

My second baby was born last year and it has been so wonderful getting to do it all again now with the knowledge I’ve gained over the last few years. Of course it’s hard at times but overall it’s been incredibly healing and peaceful. I think people expect me to miss music more than I do, or to be sad that it plays such a tiny role in my life now, but I’m not sad. I know it’s there if I need it or if I ever choose to go back, but I have been deeply fulfilled by my role as a mama and by helping other mamas find their footing, too. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing, and for that I am super grateful.

Lauren, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I knew when I started my business that I wanted to center it around the parent-baby dyad. I view it as two halves that make up the whole; one is not complete without the other. In this way I am able to really focus my care on the wellbeing and attunement between the parent(s) and child(ren). I’m a big advocate of early attachment and want to empower parents to tune into their natural instincts when it comes to responding to and loving on their babies.

There is a quote by Dr. Oscar Serrallach: “The bottom line is that if you want a healthy society, you need to have healthy communities. To have healthy communities, you have to start with a healthy family. If you want a healthy family, you need to
have the mother in the best possible health physically, emotionally. mentally, and spiritually.” And that is in part how the name for my business came about. Well mamas, well babies, well planet.

So as I went through my various trainings and certifications, I kept diving deeper and deeper into the science of attachment and I wanted to really anchor my approach there, since attachment behaviors drive pretty much everything we do. So I work with families who are looking to prepare for their postpartum time, parents who are looking to learn about breastfeeding or want to resource themselves when feeding their babies, and parents who are educating themselves about biological infant sleep and/or looking to improve their family’s sleep from a holistically-driven approach. I provide an alternate narrative to the very loud cultural noise that we have here in the US that tells parents they must teach their babies to be as independent as possible, as early as possible. What attachment research actually tells us is that from deep dependence, independence is born. When we allow children to depend on us and provide them with that secure and responsive home base, then they can really thrive.

This is how I approach everything from parental mental health, feeding, sleep, prepping for the fourth trimester, and caring for children from infancy through childhood. It’s a complete portrait and no one is left out or deemed less important than anyone else. Then we have a well family, and everyone feels supported and nurtured so they can support and nurture each other. That’s my “big picture” wish for everybody.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Listening. Really, really listening to mothers and parents. Unfortunately I have a lot of folks come to me who have been dismissed or mishandled by their trusted care providers, and this is hurtful and sometimes harmful for them. I always want my clients to feel that they are the expert on their baby and never have to worry about that being called into question.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Parents are looking for alternatives. They are realizing that the baby they have is not the baby from the book they read, and they need a non-judgmental place to turn as they gather resources and information and seek out help when necessary. We are coming off of a very dark several decades of parenting practices; from downright bad and sometimes dangerous advice about sleep and feeding and infant care to a whole lots of misunderstandings and mistruths about the way that children’s brains develop and how secure attachment is formed. There is a lot of re-eduction, reframing, and unlearning to do, but in that process there is healing and empowerment to be had for parents.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wellmamacare.com
• Instagram: @wellmama_
• Facebook: /wellmamacare

Image Credits
Kailee Riches, Lindsay Mains