Who are you?

I am first a wife and mother, a nurse, and a friend who is also handicapped. Lactation consulting is one facet of my life. I have been working with moms and babies for almost 30 years. I began as a nurse in the maternity ward of Fallbrook Hospital in 1978. I taught childbirth classes in my home for several years. Early in my career I was viewed as a radical. I strove for natural birthing practices, fathers and family members as active labor support persons: all the way into what was once called "the forbidden zone," the "no man's land" of the delivery room, no separation of mother and baby after birth, no arbitrary nurseries and regimented feeding times. I wanted others to see pregnancy and birth as a natural part of the life cycle and not an illness requiring intervention. I wanted less medical interference in the natural processes involved in childbearing.

Oddly enough, most hospitals now follow the same practices that labeled me a radical. Thanks primarily to the efforts of many women like myself who despite criticism continued to empower women through education about their choices in childbearing. Empowered women then placed consumer pressure on physicians and hospitals resulting in the childbirth revolution of the late 1970's early 1980's. Today most women and physicians work as partners throughout pregnancy and childbirth.

I quickly concluded I couldn't change the whole world by myself. So I compromised my ideal for something more realistic: change the world one mom, one baby at a time.

When the profession of Lactation Consultant was in its early infancy, I knew it was the profession I was born to do. I joined ILCA, the International Lactation Consultant Association. I took the UCLA Lactation Educator Course in 1986 and completed the UCLA Lactation Consultant Training Program in 1988. I still serve as a clinical instructor for the UCLA Lactation Consultant Training Program.

How can helping women breastfeed "Make the world a better place?"

Wallace wrote: "The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world." During this sensitive period in her life if we "mother the mother," nurturing each one with Doula support through labor and the early weeks of motherhood, and we empower her through successful breastfeeding; a mother can, in turn, better mother her infant. In time, by touching and empowering women so they can nurture their children, all society is nurtured from its foundations up.

Are you still in "practice?"?

Due to my handicap, my current practice is limited to internet support assisting breastfeeding mothers and infants with feeding difficulties.

How did you become handicapped?

I've had problems with my hip on and off since birth. I have had a total of 40 operations including 5 total hip replacements all on the same leg. An accident at work in 1997 required surgical repair. The hip got infected from that operation and didn't heal properly. During emergency surgery in January 1999 they found that nothing from the first surgery healed and revised my total hip again. My sciatic nerve was damaged in the process. The sciatic nerve injury partially paralyzed my leg and caused extreme pain. I have some slight movement in my toes, but I cannot flex my foot upward. I have to exercise my foot to keep it from becoming locked in a downward position. I had five more operations in 1999.

Unfortunately, my hip remains very unstable and dislocates sometimes several times a week. I've been lucky so far that either one of my family memebers or myself can get it back in place; saving many emergency room trips. I can walk a little but if I leave my home I use crutches or a walker. I prefer a wheelchair in public. This is a permanent way of life for me and my family UNTIL technology improves to the point where I can regrow the damaged nerves, muscles and tendons.

Will you return to work?

In March of 2000, I was told that my condition is permanent. I may get worse but I will not get any better. Unless some major advances occur in growing new muscles and tissues to support my hip (muscle transplants are not successful at this time) nothing more can be done to help me.
I will keep doing what I have always done. My family and my long-term health come first.  I have retired from my position as a Lactation Consultant, Perinatal Educator at Kaiser Permanente. I will never be able to work one on one in hands on consultations with mothers and babies again. .

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