Each week on “Around Town,” our host talks to members of the First Coast community who are making an impact in their part of town. Today our hosts, Tom McManus spoke with Julie Baumgartner.
Julie Baumgartner
Owner of Best Hope Lactation
Website Address: www.besthopelactation.com
Short company description:
Best Hope Lactation provides compassionate, evidence-based lactation support for new and expecting parents. We offer at-home, in-office and virtual consultations to help families overcome challenges, build confidence, and achieve their breastfeeding goals. Issues ranging from painful latch, tongue or lip ties or other oral anomalies or breastfeeding problems, we are here to help give moms the answers they need to gain the confidence they deserve.
How do you define success?
For me, success is growth, making an impact, making progress, learning from challenges and positively influencing others. It’s about effort, resilience and creating meaningful results in both my personal and professional life.
What lessons from sports have you applied to your personal life and career?
Sports taught me to embrace challenges, adapt quickly, and work with others toward a shared goal—lessons that guide both my career and personal life
What strategies do you use to improve your performance?
To improve performance, I focus on deliberate practice, and adjust strategies. Growth comes from persistence and learning. Regular reflection and adaptability help me refine my approach and achieve better results.
Can You Discuss a Time When You Had to Work with a Team to Achieve a Goal?
Birthworkers always work as a team, pre and post-partum. It is the most cohesive group of colleagues you will ever see. Their goal is simple, healthy mom, healthy baby, healthy dyad. They put their patient’s needs above their own. They refer to who should be their competition, all day long, if it is in the patient’s best interest. They are the epitome of what a team should be.
Transcript:
Sarah:
Welcome back to another episode of Around Town. I am your host, Sarah Olson, and today joining me is Julie Baumgartner of Best Hope Lactation. I am so excited for you to be here. Welcome to the show.
Julie:
Thank you. It’s Best Hope Lactation.
Sarah:
You are a lactation specialist.
Julie:
I am a lactation consultant. A board certified.
Sarah:
Oh my gosh. What’s your background like? How did you get into lactation?
Julie:
Well, I have been in health care for more than 30 years, and I wanted to get back into patient care because I’ve been on the administrative side for a while. So, it’s kind of a long story, but I wanted to work with moms and babies. It kind of goes back to my own birth story with my children. But it was important to me to work with moms and kind of teach them and work with them through their own lactation struggles, because it’s very hard for women when they try to breastfeed. It’s not an easy thing.
So you’ll see things on my website where we say, it’s natural, not easy.
Sarah:
Right. We talked a little bit before we got on camera too about the stresses of new moms. And you had mentioned — it was just eye opening to me — how this is not only new to the mother, but it’s new to this wonderful being that they created. Can you share a little bit more for the audience about that sentiment?
Julie:
Sure. We talk about it being the fourth trimester, which is something that’s kind of newly been spoken about. Because a lot of times moms will feel like, oh my gosh, I can’t put this baby down. It wants me to hold it all the time, and I can’t get anything done around the house.
And they feel guilty and they want to hold the baby, but they also want to put the baby down. And they’re like, the baby isn’t sleeping. It’s waking up every 2 or 3 hours. And all of this is normal. And moms need to give themselves grace and really understand that this is all new for the baby, too. Because for nine months, that baby got to float around and have the greatest time.
It was never hungry. It never had to go to the bathroom. It never had to sit in a dirty diaper. It got to listen to your heartbeat. It got to be lulled to sleep all the time. It was totally just in happy world.
And when it came out, this baby had to learn to feed — or still is learning to feed — and you’re trying to teach it to feed. You’re both brand new. So give yourself grace because it’s not easy.
Sarah:
It’s so relaxing to hear. And your voice is just so calming. I can just see how patient you are and how understanding you are.
So lactation — women will come to you after the baby’s born, but you also do some prenatal visits.
Julie:
Yep. And we just go through what to expect. Kind of the same thing. We’ll let them know what to expect with breastfeeding. We’ll go over latching. We’ll go over, if they want a pump, show them how to put their pump together, how to get ready for pumping, what to expect, what to expect with the baby.
And just really everything that I would go over in a first visit with them to have them better prepared.
Sarah:
And it seems like that would relieve some of the nervousness, to actually have some idea before they have to.
Julie:
Yes, absolutely. And the nurses in the hospital do their best to educate moms when they’re in the hospital. But one, there’s usually not enough lactation nurses in the hospital to meet the demand of being able to take care of the moms on the floor. And I’ve worked in that capacity before, and so I know what it’s like for them.
And then two, moms are usually completely out of it, completely overwhelmed. Either they’ve had medications to help them through the birth, and if they haven’t, they’re tired. They’re exhausted. They want to go home. You’ve just given them a booklet of information, and they are overwhelmed. They’ve maybe got half of that — I don’t even know that they got half of it — honestly, by the time they go home.
And again, they just got home and they’re like, what do I do? This baby won’t stop crying. They’re not latching. I’m in pain. It’s a lot.
Sarah:
What’s something that new moms should know if they’re having troubles? What’s one thing they should know?
Julie:
The biggest thing they should know is it never should hurt. Pain is not normal. So if they’re having pain, they need to call someone because it should never hurt.
If their baby is not peeing and pooping, that’s another thing that they should call about. Because what goes in must come out. If something isn’t coming out, there’s a problem.
Sarah:
Okay. So these are all good things to know. And it’s normal, you said, to know.
Julie:
Yeah. It’s normal to have problems, unfortunately. Because don’t feel like you’re doing something wrong. You’re not doing something wrong because so many moms have problems. So please don’t feel like you’re less than, because you’re not.
So many moms have problems. There wouldn’t be lactation consultants if there weren’t moms having problems.
Sarah:
True. If there weren’t moms having problems, that’s a very good common sense point.
Julie:
Yes. And we’re internationally board certified because internationally — not just here — there is a problem. So it is a problem. There absolutely is a problem.
Sarah:
I think this is just wonderful. And I think people watching are going to take away some really important tips that maybe could really change their course of motherhood and make it more happy.
Julie:
And we get calls from women that will be like, I’m on my fourth baby. And I breastfed three, and I never had an issue until the fourth. They’re all different. Every baby’s different. It could be the second. It could be the fourth. It could be the first.
Everybody’s different. They all have different anatomy. They all have different personalities. Everybody’s different. So you have to look at them as all different human beings with all different anatomy. Everything is different.
Sarah:
And this too shall pass, right?
Julie:
Yes. Yes. It’s okay. There’s help.
Sarah:
Julie, thank you so much for being on the show and enlightening us with your expertise. I’m just thrilled to have you here.
Julie:
Thank you so much.
Sarah:
And people can find you at BestHopeLactation.com.
Julie:
BestHopeLactation.com.
Sarah:
Perfect. And also at PropertySolutionsTV.com. Thanks again for watching.
Julie:
Thank you.
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