Frequently Asked Questions

I offer comprehensive support for breastfeeding challenges, infant feeding and growth concerns, and complex feeding situations. This includes oral function and tongue-tie assessment. During a consultation, you can expect a thorough assessment, a collaborative approach to creating a plan that works for you, and dedicated follow-up care to ensure you feel supported every step of the way.

Getting started is simple. Just click any Book Appointment button, decide on a time and location (Clinic, Home, or Telehealth), and follow the prompts. If you wish to talk to me first, give me a call on 0450 188 411. If I don't pick up, I will absolutely call you back — I'm likely helping another family.

There are many wonderful IBCLCs, but what makes my approach unique is the combination of professional expertise and lived experience. I have navigated feeding challenges with my own children and understand firsthand how overwhelming it can be. I approach every family without judgement, focusing not just on positioning and latch, but on identifying the root cause of feeding difficulties.

You can reach me anytime via email at info@villagelactation.com.au, or by phone at 0450 188 411.

An initial consult is $230 (90 mins), with follow-ups at $160 (60 mins). A home visit will incur an extra travel fee. Flange fittings and Antenatal consults are also $160. If you need a payment plan, please reach out and discuss with me. All consults include a summary email, care plan, referrals if needed, and ongoing support via text or email.

Mothers often tell me that working with me is like 'sitting down for a coffee with a friend' and leaving feeling heard, reassured, and confident. It is incredibly important to me to make that comfortable, friendly connection with the people I support.

If you cancel and do not attempt to reschedule, there will be a cancellation fee depending on notice given. Less than 12 hours notice with no rescheduling within 48 hours incurs a 100% fee. I understand that illnesses and emergencies happen, so waiving of cancellation fees is at my discretion.

Look for the letters IBCLC — International Board Certified Lactation Consultant is the only internationally recognised lactation credential, and it requires health sciences study, clinical practice hours in a supervised setting, a board exam, and re-certification. Beyond the credential, ask what a consult actually includes — a full feed observation, an oral assessment, a written plan, and support afterwards. Then trust your own read on the person: the right one for you is the one you can be honest with at your worst moment.

An initial consultation runs 90 minutes and is built around watching your baby feed. We start with your birth, your history, and what you're hoping for. Then I observe a full feed to assess latch, positioning, and milk transfer, and carry out a complete oral assessment including a suck test. From there we build a plan together, in plain language, that fits the week you actually have. You leave with the plan written down, and referrals if there is someone else you should be seeing.

Yes — I visit families in their own homes across Greater Brisbane and Ipswich, including Moggill, Bellbowrie, Anstead, Pullenvale, Kenmore, Brookfield, Chapel Hill, Fig Tree Pocket, Indooroopilly, Toowong, Karana Downs, and Mount Crosby. A travel fee applies by distance. Home visits are often the calmest option in the early weeks: your own couch, your own pillows, and nobody has to get out of the door on time. If you're further out than that, call me before you book and I'll tell you honestly whether a home visit or a Telehealth consult makes better sense.

Medicare has no item number for lactation consultation itself. Where a rebate is available it comes through the practitioner's own registration — a GP, or an endorsed midwife billing postnatal care up to six weeks after the birth — so it turns on who you are seeing. Ask me before you book and I'll tell you plainly what applies to yours. Private health has two halves: whether your extras cover includes lactation consultation, and whether your fund recognises the practitioner as a provider. Ask your fund both, because the first without the second pays nothing, and ask me the second one too. If cost stands between you and getting help, please say so; payment plans are available on request.

The soonest I can see you is whatever the booking calendar shows — it runs on live availability, so anything you can see there is genuinely free. Appointments are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am to 5pm, and Saturdays around the clock — in the clinic, at your home, or by Telehealth. I'm closed Thursdays and Sundays. If nothing there works, or things feel urgent, ring me on 0450 188 411 rather than waiting for the next open slot.

While you're an inpatient, the midwives and lactation consultants on your ward are your first call — that is exactly what they are there for. Where I'm most useful is the week you come home, when the ward support falls away and your milk is coming in. Booking before you're discharged means something is already in the diary for that week, rather than starting the search when you're exhausted. If you'd like to talk it through beforehand, call me and we'll work out what's possible.

No — you can book directly. You don't need a referral, a diagnosis, or a reason you can justify to anyone. If you're already working with a GP, child health nurse, midwife, or paediatrician, I'm happy to write to them so everyone is working from the same plan. And if something needs medical review, I'll say so and refer you on.

I assess oral function thoroughly, and I don't perform releases. A tongue-tie assessment with me looks at lift, extension, and cupping, plus the suck itself — because function matters far more than appearance. If a release is the right step, I'll refer you to a trusted provider, and see you afterwards for aftercare and to get feeding working again. Plenty of babies sent for assessment turn out not to need a release, and establishing that is part of the work.

Telehealth works well for anything that doesn't need hands on your baby — antenatal planning, supply questions, paced bottle feeding, returning to work, weaning, and reviewing how a plan is tracking. I can watch a feed on camera and read a great deal from positioning, sound, and your baby's behaviour. What it can't do is a full oral assessment or a suck test, so if oral function is the question, we'll meet in person. Telehealth is available anywhere in Australia.

Book an initial consultation if we haven't worked together before. It's 90 minutes and includes the full history, feed observation, and oral assessment that everything else is built on. A follow-up is 60 minutes and assumes that groundwork is already done — reviewing progress, adjusting the plan, going over post-tongue-tie exercises, or working through something new. If you're not sure which one fits, ring me and I'll tell you honestly. Sometimes a short Telehealth follow-up is all you need.

Come exactly as you are — an unmade bed and a baby in yesterday's onesie tell me more than a tidy house does. It helps if a feed is due around the appointment time, and if your pump, bottles, teats, or nipple shields are nearby. Bring your baby's Personal Health Record or any weight records you have, and write down the questions you keep meaning to ask at 3am. Everything else, we work out together.

Yes — partners, mothers, sisters, and friends are all welcome, in the clinic or at a home visit. I'd encourage it: a second person hearing the plan makes it far more likely to survive the week. Partners often ask the most practical questions — how to pace a bottle, what to look for in a nappy, how to help at 2am. Older siblings are welcome too.

The consultation doesn't end when I leave. You get the plan in writing, because nobody remembers a 90-minute conversation on three hours of sleep, plus any referrals you need. After that you can text or email me without booking anything — if something shifts, or a step in the plan isn't working, just message me. A follow-up consult ($160, 60 mins) is there for when you want a proper review.

No — there is no age at which a lactation consultation stops being useful. I see families from pregnancy right through to toddlerhood, and feeding questions don't stop after the newborn weeks — a latch that turns painful at eight months, a supply dip on returning to work, biting, bottle refusal, starting solids, or weaning gently at any age. A difficulty that has been going on for months is still worth addressing, and it is rarely too late to change how it feels.

Not being sure is a reasonable place to be, and you will not be talked into anything either way. My job is to make sure the decision is genuinely yours, made with good information rather than exhaustion and guilt. Sometimes families arrive ready to stop and leave with one small change that makes feeding bearable again. Sometimes they decide to wean, and I'll help you do it gradually, protecting you from engorgement and blocked ducts. Both are good outcomes.