Lactation Consultants/Support Groups

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Milk Donation and Sharing
http://milkshare.birthingforlife.com
This is an organization started by a mom who, due to a congenital abnormality, could not produce milk. More than 30 moms donated milk for her child. At this site, you can donate or locate milk donors.

Margarita Aronov
Pediatrician and Lactation Consultant
dr.aronov@gmail.com
97 Amity street, 1st floor
Brooklyn, NY
718-780-182
85 Montague street, 4th floor
Brooklyn, NY
718-780-2334
Margarita Aronov,  MD IBCLC is a board-certified pediatrician and an international board-certified lactation consultant . She provides home visits for lactation consultations and initial newborn exams, and also sees patients at  2 offices. Both offices are LICH-based. The age range for her patients is from newborn period to 18yo. Contact her by email or phone (or cell phone 917-751-1009 only for lactation support visits).

Boing
461 7th Avenue (between Winsdor and 16th Street)
718 840-5880
Owner Karen is a lactation counselor and store owner. She has created a sanctuary for nursing moms in mind- it is a great place to sip water, nurse and chat with her. She has a nursing circle every Wednesday at 11 am.

Stacy Brosnan
Remedy Health and Wellness
www.remedyme.com
79 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-797-8797

If you have an ongoing issue that requires support and perseverance, Stacy is not effective.
-Kim

She took 5 phone calls during my first/only visit. She was in a hurry and I left crying. NOT good for $175/Hour while sleep deprived as a first time, breast feeding mother. Would recommend highly that you seek a more loving, nurturing lactation consultant.
-Brooklyn Mama

I recommend Stacy Brosnan. She saved my breastfeeding efforts. When we called Stacy Brosnan she came quickly and had me finger feed to take my son off of my damaged nipples and teach him how to latch properly. This alleviated the problem and allowed me to continue breastfeeding…without supplementing. She was very to the point, but follow up wasn’t so good. Just an FYI. Still she corrected a problem that another consultant didn’t, and got me on the way to nursing fully. She did her job and I couldn’t ask for more.
-Moira

She’s up to $200/ hr now. Showed up late, was in a rush to leave after an hour and despite promising to be very available on the phone, wouldn’t return most of mine (I spent a frustrating week trying to reach her). She never really helped me solve our problems with our preemie either and I’ve ended up expressing milk for him and mostly not BFing at all. Big waste of money.
-S.

Everyday Family Center at the Everyday Athlete
www.everydayathletestudio.com
136 Union street (between Hicks and Columbia.)
718.852.6300
The Everyday Family is a new center within the Everyday Athlete Studio in Carroll Gardens that is facilitated by experienced Childbirth Educators, Doulas, Midwives, Nurses, and Lactation specialists and caters to the needs of new and expectant families. They have Childbirth Preparation Classes, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care classes, Breastfeeding Support Groups, Colic Support Groups, Prenatal Yoga, pre and postnatal training (with childcare!) and yoga, nutrition, massage, craniosacral therapy, and more. Breastfeeding Basics and Newborn Care Classes: A three-hour class combining discussion, video, and visual aids to help prepare you and your partner for a confident start with breastfeeding and newborn care essentials. This class will help you gain a clear understanding of what you can expect from the first hours after childbirth to the first weeks and months at home with your baby. Breastfeeding Support Group:
Bring your newborn and join other women to have your questions answered by a Maternal Neonatal Pediatrics Nurse with extensive experience in supporting new breastfeeding mothers. This group offers women an encouraging, supportive, and informative environment to help with breastfeeding. The group is facilitated by a Certified Lactation Consultant and meets every week. Registration Required.On call help is available 24-hours as well as house calls. Please contact our center for these services.

Judy Fram
718-789-9451
See also La Leche League- Park Slope

Catherine Watson Genna
718-846-2323
cwgenna@covad.net

I had been having a bit of trouble nursing but my sister in law helped me out big time. She’s actually a leader in LLL. My sister in law had me meet with a woman named Catherine Watson Genna. She’s amazing! She lives in queens but from what I understand, she does house visits. I actually went to her house and she worked with us there. She weighed the baby before and after I breastfed him to see just how many ounces he was taking in on each breast. She also helped me with positioning the baby so he could latch on. We were having so much trouble with nursing but now it’s much better. We’re still a work in progress but we’re starting to get into a groove. It was a very good experience. I’d highly recommend her.
-Jennica

Gumbo
493 Atlantic Avenue (bet. Nevins & Third)
Brooklyn 11217
718-855-7808
This great, warm community space and store welcomes moms with a new moms group(that people love) and a breast feeding support group- and tons of kids classes too.  Meets Wednesdays from 12:30-2pm.

Tam’ara Hawkins
http://www.storkandcradle.com/
http://www.integrativenutrition.com/graduates/THawkins.aspx
Stork and Cradle
tam@storkandcradle.com
646-334-3830 Tamara is the lactation consultant for Cornell-Weill Hospital who also does house calls. She was a OB/GYN nurse prior to being a lactation consultant so she knows a lot of the doctors well.

I highly recommend Tam’ara Hawkins. I called her after reading reviews off this website. She came to Brooklyn even though she lives in the Bronx. She was very thorough and was great in helping me out with breastfeeding issues and latching on issues. My baby latched on consistently after she came! She also followed up via e-mail and phone calls. She is clinical, but I found her to be supportive and just the type of personality that I needed to help at the time. She wrote specific recommendations and provided some holistic teas, remedies that might also help. She also gave me info on how to try to make a claim with my insurance. Overall, i had a great experience with her. Although, I don’t know how long she will be making house call appointments in Brooklyn because of the commute, so if you can go to her at Cornell, I would!
-Christene

I met Tamara in the hospital in a breastfeeding clinic. I was having problems on day 2 with latching and she made one quick adjustment that solved my latch problem. She wasn’t the warmest LC, but I appreciated her effective solution. A couple of months later, Tamara came out to my house for a very reasonable fee (about half of what other consultants charge) and spent an hour and a half with me. She did an analysis, observation and gave me an informative two page set of instructions on my problem.(Too much milk production). She called me every day to see how I was doing for 2 weeks! She even went over to my OB/GYN doctor for me and convinced him to write a prescription for me to help with my milk flow. Apparently, she and my GYN had worked together in the past. He respected her expertise enough that he wrote out the prescription on the spot. She even mailed the prescription to me when I was away on vacation. After 2 other lactation consultants, I can recommend her very highly. She is patient, very generous with her time and, overall, very knowledgeable about her profession. One thing to know: Tamara does not come across as outgoing or friendly- she is clinical, but she wants to listen and do her job- which she did well for me. I think this would not have been my chosen style for a lactation consultant, but as I had already seen 2, I didn’t mind that she wasn’t warm and fuzzy- I just wanted my problem fixed!
-Karen

I’d also like to endorse Tamara Hawkins. She was very helpful to me both when I was in the hospital (Cornell) and at home. I was particularly impressed with her consistent follow-up phone calls. She is also accessible via e-mail for questions.
-Amy

My experience with Tam’ara Hawkins while at Cornell Weill was not as positive. Though knowledgeable, I found her to be cold and unengaged in a one-to-one interaction. And she seemed impatient in the group breastfeeding class she insists you attend before meeting with you privately, even if you have already successfully breastfed an older child.
-Diana

Katherine Lilleskov
718-833-1121
klilleskov@gmail.com

Katherine is a great lactation consultant that lives in the neighborhood (Park Slope). She’s an RN and was a wonderful help after my son was born. She is available to come to your home shortly after calling her and will follow up as needed in person or over the phone for further questions/problems.
-Jennifer

We also used Kathy Lilleskov and she was wonderful. She was available on short notice and came back a couple of times over the first 5 months for various feeding issues and check ins. She’s also a registered nurse and a mother of 2. I highly recommend her.
-Joanna

We highly recommend Kathy Lilleskov. She responded very quickly to our initial email, which was fortuitous because she quickly found out that our 12-day old baby had lost half a pound since leaving the hospital (she travels with a baby scale). We were devastated, but she quickly provided both reassurance and help to ensure we expressed as much milk as possible (what breast pump to rent and where to rent it, as well as suggestions on how to boost production). She also give us guidelines on how to supplement with formula–something that was clearly needed for at least the short term. Finally, she followed up that night by email to see how we were doing. We cannot imagine a better combination of knowledge and empathy, and are extraordinarily grateful.
-Kristin and Daniel

Kathy is an incredible person all-around. She is warm, loving, humorous and interested in you and your baby as a whole. I contacted Kathy about my issue of milk overproduction. As this was my second baby and second experience with the same issue, I had a sense of what I should do. However, as I found out later, she had a whole new set of solutions to try that I had not been aware of. She is constantly researching, reading and conversing about breastfeeding, and thus, is a very knowledgeable LC. When she came to our apartment, she was open, engaged and curious. She stayed until my baby woke up so that she could see her nurse and then stayed to see how I got her back to sleep. She approached our issue holistically: examining our daily routine, nursing positioning, burping, sleep positioning, and general health. She was thorough and professional. A few weeks later, I had to go on a medication. Concerned about its effect on my baby, I called Kathy and asked her opinion- mentioning she could call me at any time and all night. Sure enough, at midnight, after a long day, she returned my call, armed with the information I needed and some sympathetic words and concern. As I had heard raves about her, I was curious to see if it was all true, and I am happy to report, it most definitely is!
-Karen

La Leche League- Boro Park
Rivky 718-851-9729

La Leche League- Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights
Marjorie 718-921-1558, Karen 718-921-0817

La Leche League- Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill and Cobble Hill
Lucy Koteen
lkoteen@hotmail.com
718-643-9219
Lucy runs the FG/CH meetings from her home on the second Wednesday of the month at 10 am. She runs the CH meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of the month in the evenings. Email her to confirm locations and times.

I went to the meetings twice and met some of my best friends there in those two meetings. I went once when I was pregnant (I would highly recommend going to a LLL meeting in your last month or two). It gave me a good idea as to what was coming down the pike- and wow! that was overwhelming but extremely helpful to know that a lot of women had questions and problems in breastfeeding.
-Karen

La Leche League- Kensington
Ann 718-853-5782 (English/Spanish)

La Leche League- Madison/Marine Prk
Jennifer 718-339-3806

La Leche League- Park Slope
Anne 718-965-4428, Audry 718-768-8248, Judy F. 718-789-9451, Deidre 718-788-1998

Leigh Muro, OTR
845-548-1187
Offices in Brooklyn and Hoboken
(Suck/Swallowing Specialist)
Leigh practices occupational therapy, ortho-binomy and crainal sacral therapy. She does an initial interview followed by an assessment of physical and energetic patterns. She specializes in issues challenging the nursing relationship: such as a painful tense suck, an uncoordinated suck, difficulty transferring milk as well as other feeding difficulties, patterns of muscular restriction, structural misalignment and or stressful energetic patterns.

New York Methodist
www.nym.org
718-780-5081
263 7th Ave (btw. 5th and 6th Streets)
Park Slope
Free classes on Tuesdays at 2:30 pm at the hospital. Open to women who did and did not give birth at NYM.

Realbirth
Erica Lyon
www.realbirth.com
info@realbirth.com
54 W. 22nd St NY, NY 10010
212.367.9006
Two breastfeeding support groups per week, Monday and Thursday 10am-12pm, no pre-reg necessary. Supervised by Realbirth consultants. They also have monthly nursing older babies group and nursing twins support.

The class is only $15 versus $150 for a private consultation. Heather and Kim were fabulous. It was good for me to listen to all the other women/moms and hear what they had to say.
-Kim

It is a $20 drop in fee – Susan Berger is the lactation consultant there – she is Super Duper Amazing and The Best! Seriously – I had 6 lactation consultants – she was the only one who could figure out the problems! There are classes at Realbirth on tuesdays and Fridays – call to see if she will be there – she is SO worth it.
-Alexandra

Freda Rosenfeld
489 Marlborough Rd (at Ditmas Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
718-469-5990

Freda is fully committed to breastfeeding. She put in a lot of time with me. She never gave up hope that I could breastfeed and had complete faith that I could do it. When I had lots of people questioning if I should continue trying to breastfeed, she kept me going.
-Justine

I thought Freda was helpful with explaining pumping and nursing in general. She was very comfortable to be with also. She was professional: she was in her office every morning at a designated time to do follow-up phone calls. In the end though, I found her prescribed routine for my nursing problem to be exhausting and nearly impossible to keep up with. I got very discouraged. In the end, her suggestions didn’t help my problem and I had to look for another LC. She did give me a fantastic solution to cracked nipples that was a miracle-worker! (email me if you are interested…)
-Karen

I loved Freda Rosenfeld. I found her to be warm, encouraging and understanding about what is and isn’t possible. Yes, she does prescribe exercises to do with the baby that can seem exhausting for the exhausted new mom, but if you can’t do them, don’t do them! (We did the exercises about half the time and they still helped a lot.) Freda will continue to encourage and help you — never scold. One office visit buys you an unlimited number of follow up phone calls.
-Diana

I went to Fredda Rosenfeld, who was amazing and gave me the confidence and tools to push through the painful part. A bit alarmist, but totally worth it in the end.
-Deirdre

Dr. Katarina Silverblatt
brooklynheightspediatrics@yahoo.com
718-858-4924
145 Henry Street- Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Dr. Silverblatt meets with moms to provide advice on scheduling,milk production, moral support. Come once or repeatedly but call ahead since space is limited. $15/session

See her review here about her new parents groups- I don’t have a review yet for her breastfeeding support groups, but if the reviews for her new parents group are any indication, I suspect this would be a great seminar.

Beverly Solow
212-567-1112

Andrea Syms-Brown
www.babyinthefamily.com
917-864-7457
Andrea Syms-Brown is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, she is well-established in New York having worked as a independent Newborn Care Specialist/Educator as well as a Certified Infant Massage Instructor. She is Director of Education on the New York Lactation Consultant Association Board of Directors, and founder of Baby in the Family which provides support and education to families in New York City and the Tri State area.

Svetlana Tenenbaum

stenen@earthlink.net
718-648-0042

I put in a desperate call about my 3 day old baby to Svetlana and she came the next morning (despite being jam-packed with her schedule). She was positive, enthusiastic, adoring and extremely reassuring. I called her a few months later when I had a new problem, and found her just as responsive and lovely. She loves babies and so it is so much fun to be with her and have her in the apartment adoring your baby. She helped me understand why my son was so gassy (I was making too much milk and he was only getting the front, high sugar, “skim-free milk”). She also reassured me that he was getting enough to eat by weighing Birch pre-nursing and post-nursing (proving that he had consumed 2 ounces of milk- fascinating.) Svetlana also takes insurance- my Oxford HMO allowed me to see her for $25. Great deal.
-Karen

Stephanie Watson-Campbell
http://www.storkstorenyc.com/


The final resource I want to suggest, is both a store, the Stork Store http://www.storkstoreNYC.com and the owner of that store, Stephanie Watson-Campbell, a local doula, childbirth educator and lactation counselor. Stephanie said she realized that her neighborhood was in need of a cool, hip and comfortable place for support, supplies, and classes and she created the Stork Store, on Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, to fill that need. They carry a wide variety of products for pregnancy, labor, and postpartum including, baby carriers, breast pumps, nursing bras, birth pools, cloth diapers, cool toys, and much more. The store also runs several classes though out the week.  Some of them include a breastfeeding circle that takes place on Mondays, Mommy and Me tea on Tuesdays, music classes for all ages, childbirth education, cloth diaper and sling workshops (taught by me!), baby sign language, and more.
-Megan Davidson

5 Comments

  1. Sara Chana Siverstein helped me so much with Breastfeeding. She was so knowledgeable and confident that she gave me the strength to breastfeed! I’m so happy to have met her! She took and hour and a half with me and I left her office filled with joy, calmness, and all my questions answered. Sara Chana should really be listed here so many ladies could benefit from her guidance.

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