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Sarah Tyack, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Nurse, and PSI of WA Group Leader

Sarah Tyack, RN, BSW, IBCLC is a nurse and certified lactation consultant with a background in social work who provides gentle, supportive, family-centered lactation consultation through her private practice. Sarah specializes in helping women and new families with a wide range of breastfeeding problems and concerns via in-home consultations and through private breastfeeding classes. Some of her specialty areas include: Twins, infant weight gain, newborn care, returning to work, mom’s physical and emotional needs, and postpartum depression.

Sarah spoke with us specifically about her experience working with moms experiencing breastfeeding problems and postpartum depression:

“Because most of my clients I see are having breastfeeding problems, I always make assessing for a postpartum mood disorder part of my visit. Moms desperately want to feed their babies and when there’s a breastfeeding problem, the most common statements I hear from my clients are: ‘I feel like a failure’; ‘I’m a bad mom, I can’t even feed my baby’; ‘My body is failing me.’ I hear these statements over and over again. It’s heartbreaking. Part of my private consult includes helping moms to process their feelings and statements; often a result of something they were told at the hospital or the birth being different than they’d imagined. There’s such pressure for moms to breastfeed their babies, and often a lack of support and lack of paid maternity leave. In addition to what I hear from my private clients, about a third of the moms who come to my PSI group self-identify as having postpartum depression. I do a lot of follow-up with my clients and if I believe they’re suffering from more than the normal effects of sleep deprivation and hormonal shift, I refer them to a counselor on the PSI list or help them to find another counselor who might be a good fit for them. My clients are often in crisis when I see them. Because of my crisis intervention, medical, and lactation consultation background, I spend time helping the families I work with find the right tools to help them enjoy their babies and normalize their postpartum experience.”

Sarah has recently started co-facilitating another PSI of WA and Franciscan Health support group for moms, their partners, and babies, at Highline Medical Center called “Balance after Birth.” For more information, please visit the PSI of WA webpage: http://ppmdsupport.com/supportgroups.html

For more information about Sarah’s private practice and the services she offers, visit her website at: www.babenyou.com.

She can be contacted at: 206.601.2976

You can also see more on Sarah’s Facebook page: facebook.com/babenyou

-Written by me, published in September 2014 in the Postpartum Support International of Washington eNewsletter