Lactation consultant for new mom of twins

I’m also a twin mom and worked with Carole Hansen, who is connected with UCSF and does private lactation consultation work. She came to our home and was fantastic. She helped us come up with a plan when my milk supply was low in the beginning that included breastfeeding, pumping, and supplementing that ultimately led to exclusive breastfeeding. She’s also a twin mom herself! You can google her to find current contact info. 

Janaki Costello is the best. She helped me with my second baby, and I found her to be very kind and compassionate. 

I had a great experience with Molly Brannigan with East Bay Lactation Associates.  At the time I saw her I was almost exclusively pumping and supplementing with formula due to nipple injury and supply issues.  She helped with my daughter's latch, but also worked with me to establish a pumping schedule and gave me advice on how best to bottle feed.  The comprehensive feeding plan she put together was a huge help and a big stress reliever.  I would highly recommend her. 

I have a one month old and hired Molly from East bay lactation consultants. She is very open about supplementing and does home visits and communicates by text. There is also a weekly drop in support group and weigh ins that is almost like a free new moms group I have enjoyed meeting people there even though my baby is now gaining weight fine. Good luck! 

Did your friend happen to have her babies at the Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley?  I gave birth to my son there.  They offer lactation consultations by appointment and I went there 2 or 3 times.  I found it was very helpful and was covered by my Anthem Bluecross EPO/PPO insurance.  

I used Sarah Tyack and I thought she was great.  Not sure on her experience with twins as I had a single, but here's her contact info:

Sarah Tyack RN, BSW, IBCLC510 871 3264206 601 2976sarah [at] babenyou.com (sarah[at]babenyou[dot]com)Www.babenyou.comfacebook.com/babenyouPlease also see my reviews on Yelp yelp.com/biz/babe-n-you-Oakland

I had a really great experience with Kelly Ryan, whom I found to be incredibly warm, understanding, and practical about the challenges of breastfeeding. While not preemie, my daughter was incredibly small and I had a lot of trouble breastfeeding. Kelly helped me develop an approach that worked for me and my daughter, and was incredibly supportive throughout. I can’t recommend her enough. Her website is www.milkmadeca.com. Good luck!

Hi there,

Before I gave birth to my boys, I took a breastfeeding class with Carole Hanson through UCSF (for the general public). She lives in Marin, but she will come to the East Bay, too. I tried three different local consultants before reaching out to her; none of the others really helped. But, Carole, after only a few minutes, was able to help me tremendously. You can reach her at carole [at] thorhanson.com.

Also, there is a ton of super helpful info here, too: http://med.stanford.edu/newborns/professional-education/breastfeeding.h…

I had an amazing experience working with Molly Brannigan. I had a number of issues, going into breastfeeding, and I felt like she was very aware of and sensitive to the balance of wanting to breastfeed, the mental burden of pumping, and other mental health factors. She was wonderful, and helped me and my little one get over our hurdles.

I love our lactation consultant Serena Meyers who travels to our home to help. Our daughter was tongue tied which limited her ability to feed and my milk supply. We had to use a combination of breastfeeding, pumped milk, and formula milk to optimize at each stage while getting the laser procedure done and working with a cranialsacral therapist. Serena was magic in guiding us through at each stage. You could contact her directly at EastbayLC [at] gmail.com and she also runs a breastfeeding Facebook group and trained many laceration consultants 8 the past.

Molly Brannigan is the person to work with! She’s at East Bay Lactation and she is so well-rounded and non-judge mental in her approach to infant feeding — her academic background is in nutrition! I can’t sing her praises loud enough. When my little guy wasn’t gaining enough weight she talked us through the whole ordeal and helped us feel confident again. 

I hired Ellen Schwerin to help with latching issues with my twin baby girls. I worked in coordination with Ellen and a craniosacral therapist recommended by Ellen and a few others. Ellen was very easy to work with and very supportive of my journey. Before I had the babies, I didn't put much pressure on myself about breastfeeding, but once they were born and it became apparent that there were many hurdles to successfully directly breastfeeding the girls, I had a lot of anxiety around making it work. The first time Ellen arrived in my house, she was able to get both babies to latch without any issues. She has a calm and methodical approach. After Ellen left, I continued to have issues with the babies being able to latch. Some days it would work, and others it wouldn't. Ellen was available by phone, email and came to the house a couple times. She was supportive in my goals to breastfeed, but was also supportive on the emotional journey in figuring out what would work best for my family. I tried for about 10 weeks, and although successful at times, the babies would not continuously latch for full feeds and it became apparent that I needed another solution. I ended up pumping successfully for the first year of their life and supplemented with formula as I didn't make enough for all of their needs. Ellen was supportive and not judgmental of this outcome. I would recommend her to others having issues and especially those with twins.