Evolve Lactation Podcast

Hi friend, I’m Christine, an IBCLC in California. Here, on my Substack, I share what I’ve picked up over my 23+ years working and volunteering in lactation care & support. I write and record a podcast about my personal stories of motherhood, my professional insights from teaching and coaching hundreds of aspiring and current lactation care providers, and things I think can help you on your journey to making breastfeeding and lactat...

It started with a Reel on Instagram.

Then it became a plan for a conversation about the differences and the shared mission of hospital-based IBCLCs and private practice IBCLCs.

On this episode of the Evolve Lactation Podcast, I am joined by Nicole Longmire, MPH, IBCLC, PMH-C and LeeAnn Contreras, BSN, RN, IBCLC for an enlightening and empowering conversation about this challenging topic.

Buckle up as we take you through the bumpy j...

Closing the Gap: Ensuring Breastfeeding Support for All - this is the theme of World Breastfeeding Week this year.

Evolve Lactation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I recently wrote a book that captures the essence of how to ensure this support in the critical first week of breastfeeding.

When mothers don’t get the support they need right from the...

Thank you for reading Evolve Lactation with Christine Staricka IBCLC. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Happy IBCLC Appreciation Day! In celebration, I have a really special episode of the podcast for you.

I am so excited to share with you my conversation with my dear friend and fellow IBCLC, Adrienne Guirguis. I cannot begin to count up how much I have learned from Adrienne over the years.

She is everything you want you...

If my sisters have struggled with milk production, will I have a problem?

Join me in the Lactation Consultant's Inbox as I discuss a question about the link between milk production and genetics. We'll talk about why getting advice from a trusted, professional source is crucial because family and friends might unknowingly share misinformation. It's important to work with a professional to assess personal risk factors and learn specif...

Why hire a lactation consultant if you can just look up breastfeeding information online?

Join me in the Lactation Consultant's Inbox as I discuss why people still need lactation consultants despite the abundance of information on the internet. We'll talk about the ways people access information and how they have changed significantly with the internet, compared to the early 2000s when they relied on books, magazines, and healthcare...

Evolve Lactation with Christine Staricka IBCLC is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As healthcare workers, we should not be creating drama in the first days of breastfeeding.

When you’re a parent in the throes of learning to breastfeed your new baby, it’s normal to have questions, doubts, concerns, and anxieties.

But if you’re a healthcare worker, y...

I wrote a book about early lactation care, but not everyone is going to like it. 

Many health care providers are going to have a hard time with this approach, even though it’s entirely evidence-based. 

Join me on this episode of the Evolve Lactation Podcast where I read a chapter from my new book, Evolving the Modern Breastfeeding Experience: Holistic Lactation Care in the First 100 Hours. 

The book is available now at this link. 

You ...

Thank you for reading Evolve Lactation with Christine Staricka IBCLC. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Hold on to your hats - this is a long, amazing, wide-ranging conversation!

I’ve been following the blooming IBCLC career of Nicole Longmire (@MotheringNurtured on IG) for several years now on social media.

Last week I reached out to her to praise her for a post she made that really resonated with me, and before I knew ...

My day-to-day work revolves around supporting the current and the aspiring lactation care provider with the resources they need to continue learning, to practice evidence-informed lactation care, and to treat people with kindness and compassion in their contacts with them for the purposes of lactation support. I am immersed in the world of lactation care and the universe of lactation supporters every single day. I am fully committe...

In this talk, I discuss the challenges of talking about formula as a lactation care provider and provides ideas to stay inspired and ready to discuss formula with clients. I share my own experiences with infant feeding so that you know my context and emphasize the importance of understanding where clients are coming from when discussing formula. I also provide guidance on how to approach conversations about formula, including asses...

Thank you for reading Evolve Lactation with Christine Staricka IBCLC. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Why am I so serious about my work? How can we emphasize the importance of uncomplicating breastfeeding for individuals and on a population level?

In this new episode of the Evolve Lactation Podcast, I’ll discuss the need for over-education and continuous learning in the field of lactation care. I’ve got some encourageme...

In this episode I discuss my holistic approach to building resilience in your lactation career, why it's important, and how Evolve Lactation can help.

We review 5 strategies for thriving in your lactation career:

- prioritizing your own physical and emotional health

- writing and re-assessing your practice philosophy

- uncovering your own biases

- being intentional in choosing your continuing education

- nurturing your connections and co...

Welcome to my IBCLC© Day 2023 Series! Each day I’ll share with you one piece of insight about our work. (If you’re too excited and you just want to read them all now, go here and download the whole list)

Let me know in the comments if you agree, disagree, never thought about it this way, or whatever you’re feeling!

1. Even when you are an IBCLC, you won't know the answer to every question your client or patient asks.

Really - you wo...

When we think about supporting exclusive breastfeeding in healthy term babies, we start from the default that exclusive breastfeeding works, that most people make all the milk that they need, that there are a set of practices that we do to make sure that happens, and there are the outcomes we look for to make sure that everything's going well. We observe and pay attention to ensure that, and we stand ready to assist if a problem ar...

If you are getting into the field of lactation care, you need to be ready for the trickery. Be prepared.

The marketing deception, the lies, the outright bribery - it’s all coming at you. They’re just waiting to capture your attention and divert you from the science.

Marketing works; that’s why companies spend money on it. It works on everyone. Works on me, that’s for sure. It’s why I drink a certain kind of sparkling water and wear a...

Something is missing in modern parenthood. Parents find a lot of messaging in their lives but not a lot of actual information about how to implement things.

Social media is an easy structure on which to place blame, but truly all media holds some responsibility. Cherry-picked research articles framed in ways to grab attention, advertising space offered to anyone who can pay, mis- and dis-information peddlers protected by free speec...

The proliferation of tools and devices designed to be used during lactation has occurred without an accompanying body of research to support it. Parents are receiving hundreds to thousands of marketing messages for these products during pregnancy and lactation, a time when they are especially vulnerable to being influenced about making buying decisions that they are told can impact their ability to breastfeed. In fact, any tool or ...

It was with our second cohort of teaching future lactation educators that my colleague and I realized that some of our students needed more than just knowledge and information. They were in tears as they absorbed the information about how human lactation works and best practices. Some were angry, too, that they were given bad information when they were trying to breastfeed. They followed us into the restroom to talk about their per...