“When our son was born, he was full term but small for his gestational age. My hope was to exclusively breastfeed, but that seemed to slip away as he struggled to latch, stay awake through feedings, and gain weight consistently. We were supplementing with formula before we even left the hospital. Feeding was such a struggle, and while we were happy to see him eating, I worried that I missed the opportunity to establish breastfeeding. Leading up to his birth, I read everything I could get my hands on and took a breastfeeding class – the amount of information (often conflicting) was overwhelming. I was close to giving up when we first met with Mary. Her help had an immediate and substantial impact. Mary offered specific and targeted feedback, tips and techniques, and personalized plans for reaching our goal of weaning off formula and nursing successfully. Her warm and assuring energy was invaluable in helping quell our doubts and find an approach to breastfeeding that worked for our family.  Over several sessions, her support and encouragement helped us realize that we could do it – and in fact we were. Most importantly, it gave us the confidence to keep up the hard work. And it paid off – 6 months in we have a (nearly) exclusively breastfed baby who is happy, healthy, and thriving. I would highly encourage any family who wants to breastfeed to work with Mary!”         – Annalise