We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Peck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

I went back to nursing school as a second career after working (and not working) as an actress in Los Angeles for 5 years. I was drawn to the hard work and compassion required to be a nurse. In school, I realized that I wanted to focus on either women’s health or newborn care. I spent my final rotation during my Master’s in the Neonatal ICU and I fell in love with it. The infants in the NICU are incredibly resilient and having a front-row view of their development felt like an incredible privilege.

I realized that I wanted to work as a Neonatal ICU nurse, but I wanted to pursue a certification in lactation consulting and education to better serve the parents in the NICU as well. I completed my hours to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) before starting my first job as a bedside RN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA.

I worked both as a NICU RN and IBCLC while living in Boston. I would tend to patients 3 days a week and spend the other 2 days helping new mothers navigate early infant feeding as part of the team at Boston NAPS. These two jobs ended up being truly transformative. I was able to hone my skills as a bedside RN with the premature infants in the NICU while also serving new parents and their infants in-home. Through this experience, my goal became to one day start my own business providing newborn care and infant feeding education to new parents in-home post-delivery.

As was the case with so many, the pandemic had other plans! My husband and I were planning on leaving Boston in May 2020. It didn’t make sense for me to start a business at that time, so I sought and found a job as a bedside RN at Cedars Sinai NICU. There I was able to continue to build my skillset and also start a small network of providers in Los Angeles.

Finally in February of 2021, Nesting Lactation Nursing Corp launched! I decided to leave my job as a bedside RN in the NICU and start seeing patients in-home and virtually to help with infant feeding and newborn care. I have always wanted to serve patients from the comfort of their own homes. The one thing that was lacking for me in the NICU was my ability to give ample time to the parents and meet their needs as well as the needs of their child.

Now I am able to do just that! I love my job and feel privileged to be able to help new parents and their infants. I would not have been able to build this business without the support and guidance by all my peers, coworkers and bosses along the way. I am grateful for all the women who helped me carve this path and grateful to all the women I am able to serve!

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?

Nesting Lactation provides newborn care and infant feeding services from the privacy of your own home. I am currently the only provider at the company and with my experience as a NICU RN and Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), I provide evidence-based and compassionate care to all my patients.

I approach every patient as an individual and I shape my care based on their goals. My role is to provide education and guidance to help them find a better balance in the early postpartum period. I want my patients to feel empowered to feed their infants however works best for them! I use my experience in the NICU to inform my newborn care techniques and I use my education as an IBCLC to guide parents with up-to-date evidence-based information.

I am proud that I am able to take the time to form personalized care for each and every one of my patients in their time of need. The early postpartum period is a whirlwind of opinions and information, and I try to be a stable and calming voice.

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

The best thing that I have built is my network of colleagues, providers and friends in the field. In the age of technology, it serves to seek out connections in person with a genuine interest in connecting and not just the motivation of building a network for network’s sake.

I rely heavily on the relationships I have with other providers and I like to think they feel the same about me. If you are passionate about your work, you should also be passionate about always seeking new connections and always learning more. This has been the most valuable aspect of my work and my business.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The best resource I have is David Foster Wallace’s commencement address from Kenyon College in 2005 titled This is Water. In it he discusses the importance of awareness and empathy in this life. Starting a business puts you at risk of seeking constant success and potentially judging those around us who get in our way or impede our growth. David speaks about the importance of being curious about those around us and not judgmental. It is important to live our lives with an awareness of HOW we live and not just a constant, blind drive forward. I recommend watching the original speech in its entirety.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nestinglactation.com
• Instagram: @nesting.lactation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-peck-878aba14/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nesting-lactation-los-angeles

Image Credits
Kerry Henderson