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Lactation services- Heart to heart - Fenton
Melissa Samaki RN, IBCLC, CDP- heart to heart - Fenton
Melissa provides non-judgemental breastfeeding and chestfeeding support for families. Her desire is to assist families in meeting their infant feeding goals through a collaborative approach. She has 8 years experience as a Maternal and Newborn RN, two years as an IBCLC, and recently became a Certified Postpartum Doula. Her lactation career began the day her first child was born. Melissa struggled to breastfeed both her children for the first few months. Melissa's breastfeeding challenges led her to seek professional and peer support as well as a lot of self-education. Once Melissa gained confidence and knowledge, she committed to walk alongside other breastfeeding families, especially those who are struggling. Her areas of expertise are prenatal breastfeeding education and the newborn period.
Lactation services-heart to heart- troy
Blair van coutren, ibclc, b.s. Nutrition and dietetics - heart to heart- troy
Blair is a St. Louis native. She received her Bachelor's in Nutrition and Dietetics from Saint Louis University. It was during her 5+ year career with Women, Infants, Children (WIC) that her passion for motherhood, pregnancy and breastfeeding ignited. Last fall, Blair earned her IBCLC certification. In the last 2 years she's been on the labor and delivery ward at 2 area hospitals, helping mothers gain confidence in initiating their breastfeeding journey. While Blair promotes, protects, and supports breastfeeding fiercely, her first priority is supporting the mother and works to meet every client where THEY are at. Fed is a given, informed is ideal, but a supported mother is best.
A unique aspect to Blair’s experience is her familiarity with the formula industry and its various products/approaches. Blair supports all types of feeding styles, whether it’s exclusive breastfeeding, exclusively expressing milk, exclusively formula or combo method!
Blair's strengths are her empathy, flexibility and dedication. Blair's aim is to bridge the gap between intention and execution; many mothers intend to breastfeed but more often than not, the system falls short. She seeks to be that connection that provides guidance, information and empowerment to families who find themselves in need of a lactation/infant feeding specialist.
In addition to being an IBCLC, Blair is a nutritionist who can assist in assessing supplements, and tailor different nutrition recommendations to help families meet their goals.
She is happily married with 2 very young children (3 and 6 months), both born with the invaluable assistance and assurance from nurse-midwives.