Alicia Burgett Lactation Consultant At Mothering Matters Eases Concerns, Fears And Guilt Of Nursing Mothers

Alicia Burgett’s office is the coziest.

Tucked away in the medical wing of a Spokane Valley office building, her windowless room is decorated with pictures of her family, a fuzzy blue chair, a life-size baby doll, back lighting and an X-ray screen made over with curtains and a frame. Soothing music emanates from a stack of black components.

“I want to make this really cozy,” said Burgett, quick to smile and dressed in a casual suit. “Most of my clients who come in here are stressed to the limits.”

A certified lactation consultant, Burgett is co-owner of a consultation and breast-feeding equipment-rental business called Mothering Matters. Often her clients are in pain, embarrassed or frustrated because they find breast-feeding difficult.

When they come to Burgett, they’re sometimes near tears. She does all she can to relax them. She dims the lights, makes the room welcoming and often sits below them on the floor when offering advice. “We have to be on a human level,” she said. “It’s not that I’m the professional and you’re the mom. … I’m a mom, too.”

Burgett has found a niche in a growing market. As studies show that breast-fed infants are more resistant to disease, ear infections and allergies than their bottle-fed counterparts, more mothers are choosing to postpone or eliminate formula feedings.

And since many new mothers go back to work, Burgett’s business caters to their desires to continue feeding their children breast milk. She rents mechanical pumps to use when they’re at work and advises them on storing and using breast milk. A hospital-grade pump can cost $1,000. Burgett’s machines rent for about $1 a day.

Now Burgett pays the rent with equipment rentals, but it’s not all of her business.

“In the beginning, it was 99 percent pump rentals and sales of parts and kits,” she said. “That has changed.”

Today her name is better known, and doctors, clients, hospitals, non-profit organizations and businesses send her referrals. Burgett is regularly called on to counsel new mothers and teach classes on nursing babies.

Even when she’s delivering a rental pump, she takes the time to check on the new mother and advise her on breast-feeding.

“She was very friendly,” said Lorelei Plagman, a client who recently rented equipment from Burgett. “She sat down and helped me with the pump.”

Plagman’s hospital had recommended Mothering Matters. “They said they will be the best because they’re lactation specialists.”

Sometimes Burgett’s job is a battle. She has to help her clients deal with misinformation about breast-feeding and caring for infants, as well as their discomfort about feeding their babies outside the home.

Sometimes advice or remarks from well-meaning friends and family interrupt the nursing relationship between mother and child, Burgett said.

Burgett is also fighting for recognition as a medical professional. It’s a battle she’s winning. Currently she’s hashing out contracts with a few health insurance providers who will pay for their members to use her services. Others don’t consider Burgett’s lactation consultation a medical need, which is ironic since breast-fed babies are less prone to illness and would need fewer trips to the doctor, she said.

For those whose insurance won’t cover her services, Burgett offers a sliding-scale pay plan. Sometimes, she just gives the advice for free. “If a person has no bank account, I’ll work with them,” she said.

While the work is rewarding, Burgett also says it has frustrations. She fights against mothers buying poor equipment. Many formula and baby food manufacturers offer inadequate breast pumps and feeding equipment.

“It’s not in their best interest for mothers to breast-feed,” she said, warning new mothers to do their research. “Before you buy it, you need to look at who manufactures it. There’s a lot of garbage out there - both information and equipment.”

Burgett and her Mothering Matters business partner, Karen Querna, are on 24-hour call for new mothers who urgently need advice. “Sometimes they call saying, ‘I’ve got such pain, I can’t take it anymore,”’ Burgett said. “One mom called me in the middle of the night and said, ‘I’ve got a bottle here and I know how to use it.”’

Burgett’s interest in breast-feeding started eight years ago with the birth of her first child.

“It’s totally because of Sean,” she said. “When he was born, his feedings got off to a poor start.

“I didn’t realize that I needed to feed him more often,” Burgett said. “He went from 10 pounds (at birth) to failure to thrive in six weeks.”

That experience helps her empathize with her clients.

“These moms have guilt and feelings of inadequacy when they can’t feed their child,” she said. “These feelings are slaps in the face.”

Burgett didn’t take the standard path to being an international board-certified lactation consultant, which is usually the path of registered nurses. Instead, she took on mentors, worked as a volunteer counselor, and served in the Childbirth Education League in Monterey, Calif., including two years as president of the group.

Now she’s one of four international board-certified lactation consultants in Spokane and the only one with a private office. Often consultants are nurses associated with hospitals such as Deaconess and Sacred Heart.

Because she’s not a medical professional, when Burgett suspects a client may have a medical or emotional problem, she quickly refers them to a doctor. “What I provide is the educational support,” she said.

In May she moved her business from her home to the office at 1301 N. Pines. Her partner Querna, who shares certain overhead costs, operates her consultations separately.

Before opening the office, Burgett spent much of her time dropping off equipment and making house calls. It got to be tiring. “It was becoming too much time in my car,” she said. “I thought, maybe I can afford to pay my rent. Now I can see more people during the day.”

Though most new mothers don’t need a lactation consultant, those who do find limited resources. Burgett said she has clients from as far as Sandpoint.

Last year 80 percent of the mothers who delivered at Deaconess decided to breast-feed their infants.

“We get over 200 phone calls every month,” said Cecelia Zwick, a consultant in the Deaconess Breastfeeding Clinic. “The need for (lactation) consultants is tremendous.”

So is the need for equipment. While Deaconess can provide the advice, sometimes the clinic refers its patients to Burgett for equipment. “She has supplies that we don’t have,” Zwick said.

Burgett also gets clients from doctors by word-of-mouth. Though she doesn’t advertise, she doesn’t have trouble finding clients.

“Lactation consultants are absolutely in demand,” said Gina Peterson, a volunteer consultant with the La Leche League, a nonprofit group that encourages breast-feeding. “La Leche League gets a minimum of 75 calls a month.”

The medical industry for years has encouraged bottle-feeding babies. Only recently has the trend toward breast-feeding taken hold, she said. “It’s important for people like Alicia and other consultants and La Leche League to be available to new mothers.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo