We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Glod recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
Many people are under the false notion that once you become a mother, your career is over. I am here to testify that that simply is not true. In fact, motherhood has inspired and fueled my career as a lactation professional.
My interest in becoming a lactation professional sparked after the birth of my first child, although I didn’t know the sparks were taking place at the time. I had always known that I wanted to breastfeed my babies. Nourishing my babies with my own body sounded like the most joyous task a mother could partake in. However, the birth was the opposite of what I had originally imagined and resulted in an unplanned, emergency c-section with a five-day hospital stay due to injuries to my son during the birth. Medical interventions spawned more medical interventions which led to an unideal start to our breastfeeding journey. I thought that breastfeeding was supposed to be the most natural thing in the world? Why was it proving to be so difficult?
The hospital staff was less than supportive of my desire to breastfeed and told me that I was not able to continue trying and had to choose between giving my son donor milk or formula. I chose donor milk, but felt completely defeated in my attempt to nurse my son. What was I doing wrong? Why couldn’t I feed him like he was meant to be fed?
Nearing my breaking point, like an angel of light, entered the lactation consultant. She assured me my feelings and experience was common and that she believed I could breastfeed my son. She was the only hospital staff to say this to me, to show that she really believed in me. After her visit I felt a surge of hope and a new drive to tackle the challenges to breastfeed my baby. This is what I wanted. It would be hard, but I can do hard things.
After leaving the hospital, breastfeeding my son got better, but there were still many challenges that arose in the next year and a half of nursing my son. With each challenge, I faced it head on and educated myself on the problem and solution and worked with consistency to overcome each issue. At the time, I didn’t realize the resources available to me as a breastfeeding mom. I had thought I was on my own in this journey and so I overcame each challenge alone.
It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my second baby that I realized that I knew a lot about breastfeeding, maybe even a lot more than most breastfeeding moms. I realized that I could educate and support other moms in their breastfeeding experience. After my second baby was born, I felt much more equipped to breastfeed her and started to feel a strong pull towards a career shift. I started researching how to become a lactation consultant and realized that, although it would require a lot of hard work, it was very attainable for me.
I reached out to one of my midwife friends and she connected me with their center’s lactation consultant. From there we began a mentorship relationship and I enrolled in my first class that summer. I began formally mentoring under the same lactation practice the following year and have since decided to open my own lactation support practice to educate, equip, and empower local families to feed their babies and help them to grow.
I am thankful for the negative experiences I had in early motherhood, because I know they are what sparked and fueled my career as a lactation professional. I am excited to take my education and experience to help families grow and thrive. If I can be an “angel of light” to other moms in despair, even by just showing that I believe in their ability to do hard things, I will see it as a job well done.
Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I own To Grow a Baby and offer lactation support and other parenting resources to the Jacksonville, FL area (and online support anywhere in the world!). I offer lactation consultations and can help families with support for any feeding issues. I offer infant and breast assessments and feeding infant counseling (action plan). I also offer basics of breastfeeding education courses to help families to have a great head start on their breastfeeding journey. In the near future, I plan to offer childbirth education and other parenting education courses that will include stages of development, basic hygiene, and infant sleep. I want parents to be as equipped as possible help their babies grow and thrive.
What sets my practice apart is my holistic approach to health. I see the individual as a whole person, made in the image of God and thus deserving of my respect and upmost care. I understand that there are many contributing factors that cause feeding issues and I seek out the problem and solution considering the whole body. I support families to reach their goals. I believe that fed is the minimum, nourishment is the goal, supported is best. I also believe that breastfeeding is really hard, but that hard doesn’t mean bad.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
Yes, I would choose the same profession. However, if I could go back, I would have gone to school for nursing or premed, instead of liberal arts. And I may go back to pursue a nursing degree someday. As a lactation professional, there are laws that prevent me from certain practices that could potentially help with deeper feeding issues. It can sometimes be challenging to involve several other practitioners to get to the root cause in resolving an issue. Being a nurse practitioner or doctor would allow me to prescribe needed medication or make diagnoses.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
I believe that you need to have a passion and love for your profession in order to succeed in your career. I would argue that love for your career may even be more important than training and knowledge. You can always learn more, but passion is harder to achieve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://togrowababy.com
- Instagram: @togrowababy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/togrowababy