Spotlight Series

Guest Name: Anna Burch

Credentials:  IBCLC – Lactation Collection

Anna Burch: all right

Dr. Betty DeLass: so Anna is a registered nurse International board certified lactation consultant or IBCLC the founder of the Lactation Collection lactation consultant agency and with over a decade of experience in women’s health and deep passion for supporting mothers Anna combines her professional expertise with her personal journey through infertility and motherhood and empowers families on their breastfeeding Journeys since 2017 she has helped hundreds of mothers navigate challenges like La latch issues milk supply pumping and more currently pursuing her Doctorate of nursing at the University of Utah to become a women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse Midwife and I continues to advocate for moms and babies with compassion and expertise thank you so much Anna for being on here you are wealth of knowledge and you are just going to change the world so let’s jump in what made you decide to take this path and how did you get here and all the things

Anna Burch: oh great question so I became a registered nurse and that passion came from when I was like a teenager I think 12 years old my sister worked in labor and delivery mom baby at the hospital and would talk about it and I was like yeah that sounds so cool I love that idea so I knew I wanted to be a nurse and like right outside of high school I went right into college knowing that that was my major you know got everything done became a registered nurse and I happened to graduate at a time that there was actually a shortage in nursing jobs and so it was really difficult to find a job as a nurse but I finally I got a job at a an OBGYN office and I discovered that like I kind of liked the office setting where you didn’t have to work nights and weekends and holidays and so thought you know what this works really well but then as I worked more and more I came to find that the nurses at the doctor’s office and even the providers there when moms called in and asked questions about lactation and breastfeeding their baby they had concerns we weren’t able to answer them we’d go ask the providers and they’re like I don’t know and I thought well somebody needs to know the answers to these questions and so I started pursuing the education needed to become a lactation consultant and then shortly after I had my first baby I went through the certification exam and got certified to be a lactation consultant and decided from there that the best fit for me would be to start my own private practice so that I could work my own hours and what kind of worked best for my family and having a young baby and so it started out I named it prenatal insights and kind of because I had the background now of working in a doctor’s office I had gone through infertility so I kind of started out with information about pre-pregnancy and pregnancy and postpartum and lactation and over the years having more kids and then getting ready to go back to school I realized really the focus is on lactation and um bringing in more lactation Consultants to help provide the care that moms need especially as I was going back to school decided to kind of revamp the business and Company and so I renamed it the Lactation Collection since we’re kind of a collection of lactation consultants and mentees and support and information and resources all around lactation and so I brought on another IBCLC to work with me and then shortly after brought on another one and now we’re a team of five IBCLCs and we have four mentee so for other women that are training to become IBCLCs and they’re getting their hours through our office and we’re all able to go out and support mamas but that’s kind of what brought me into the lactation sphere and and pretty exciting

Dr. Betty DeLass: talk a little bit touch a little bit on like where your career path is going now like what prompted that like next Evolution

Anna Burch: yeah so it was a couple years ago so I think I was just looking into a bunch of different lactation Consultants on social media and like what are they doing in their businesses and what other offerings do they have throughout the United States and I found one that was an IBCLC and a women’s health nurse practitioner and years ago I had had the thought of becoming a nurse practitioner and then I was like nah it’s not quite the right fit for me so I didn’t pursue it at that time but a couple years ago when I was looking into all of this and I saw that and I was like I could do that I could do that too and so I decided why not I I’ll apply for school we’ll see where it goes we’ll see what happens um but my thinking around it was also that with lactation it’s an area that is supposed to be covered by all insurances but some insurance companies are stingy as you know in your own business and it could be tricky to get insurance coverage for the care that women need and luckily we’ve been able to work with a bunch of different companies that work with insurance companies for us but I learned and have come to find out that as a provider as an NP that I would be able to possibly build other insurances that these other companies can’t and so I am hoping to expand what our offerings are once I graduate and I’m a women’s health nurse practitioner to hopefully be able to get even more insurances covered through the Lactation Collection so that we can serve so many more mamas in this area um but also being able to expand out the care that we can provide because as a lactation consultant and as a registered nurse you know each profession has their own scope of practice and lactation Consultants we can’t diagnose things and we can’t necessarily treat a diagnosis but as a nurse practitioner I would be able to diagnose and treat and prescribe medication which in some cases would be very helpful so that we don’t see somebody and say hey well from the symptoms that you’re having it sounds like it could possibly be this and we recommend that you call your provider and ask them for this treatment or you know whatever it might be that we would actually be able to provide that offering as well

Dr. Betty DeLass: I love that you’re expanding your your scope to be able to serve more people and depth of of servant too yeah that’s amazing awesome thank you for sharing that with us okay my next question for you is what do you feel like Makes You Different in your practice in your collection in the all the things that you guys are doing

Anna Burch: yeah well that’s a great question um and it kind of comes back to when I when I first decided to go into lactation I mentioned it to my family to my sisters and their first thing that came out of their mouth to me was don’t be like the lactation consultants in the hospital and I was like what oh dear what’s what’s going on here like what happened um and so I was like okay well you know finding out more information like they didn’t fully listen they didn’t necessarily like fully help or they got baby to latch on but it was the lactation consultant that did it for Mom it wasn’t mom that did it um and you know they they both had had babies a long time ago so so I know things have changed a lot since that time and I know that care has improved which is great but I’ve also learned from the lactation Consultants I have on my team that work at the hospital that it’s really hard for them to actually have time to spend with the moms in the hospital they have so many moms that they need to go see often they’re over the moms and babies in mom baby they help with the NICU babies they might help with kids that come into the Peds unit that are still breastfeeding like they have so many things that they have to go do and they can’t spend a whole lot of time with each mom and baby and figuring out if there are difficulties and and helping them and educating them and then you have the outpatient setting where there are several groups in Utah that serve moms and do in-home like a consulting which is great and I love that we have them all over Utah to be able to serve more and more moms and really help and support those women um and I’ve learned from a lot of those women and I feel like a lot of the things that we do are very similar um we all have reached out and gotten different certifications increased knowledge and things but I think one thing that really has set the Lactation Collection apart from the other groups is that we have a lot of online offerings and resources that the other companies that don’t have that are free to access so we have great blog posts that are full of information and really can help answer so many questions we have a visual glossary of different breastfeeding terms things that they might be told by a provider things that we might say to them but they can get a picture of what that might look like as well as information about each of those terms we actually have the largest breastfeeding glossary online wow um which is really cool um and we offer free breastfeeding support groups twice a month in person so that moms can come and get support that way if whether we’re seeing them and doing consultations with them or whether it’s a free resource that they can come use because maybe their insurance doesn’t cover the consultations and we can answer their questions and help support them in that setting as well and then we also do have online courses specifically a breastfeeding Basics course where it’s meant for prenatal education so while they’re still pregnant that they can learn and prepare for breastfeeding um to really just get ready and understand what to expect what to do right after delivery what to to do if baby doesn’t latch like what happens when things don’t work out exactly like we hope or plan um kind of having that information to start off the breastfeeding Journey on the right foot because you already have some things figured out and you know a little bit some other tips and tricks to try which is really really helpful everybody that takes our online course or in-person course that we teach once a month has really said that it’s very helpful and they feel so much more prepared to breastfeed their baby than they did before and I’ve always found it very interesting there are so many moms out there and women just in general that are like well breastfeeding it’s a natural thing it will just come naturally like it will be fine like so and so never had a problem with it so I won’t have a problem either and that’s great I love that there are women out there that don’t have problems with breastfeeding that’s awesome I wish it was like that for everybody but breastfeeding As Natural as it is it doesn’t always come naturally to Mom or baby and sometimes we just need help and support to get things going on the right foot and having education and preparing for that before baby comes can be so helpful because everybody that has had a baby knows that those early postpartum days are so crazy like you’re sleep deprived your hormones are changing massively with having just delivered a baby and everything is just it’s another world really and it’s so hard to try to take in information and learn new things and try to implement new things that you’ve never heard about never known about before and so if you can prepare before those days to kind of understand what’s expected what to do if something doesn’t work out exactly like you expected it to that you already have that information it’s not new and it’s a whole lot easier to implement and do something with and we really try to focus on that prenatal education whether it’s through a course or a consultation before baby comes because sometimes it’s nice to have that one-on-one consultation where we can talk to you specifically about your concerns your questions your personal medical history and how that might impact things and then go with a full plan when you have your baby of what you personally are expecting in that time frame

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing so great so many wonderful things that you’re doing okay um what does the process look like to work with you like how does someone get it in your care like do do they just sign up online do they give you a call do they pick an IBCLC on your website like how does how do they get get to you

Anna Burch: no that’s a great question and we try to make it really simple so that whichever route works best for them like we will make work so they can visit our website thelactationcollection.com and they can schedule online it’s pretty easy you can either choose just like next available lactation consultant you choose your area and it will give you the times that are available and you can choose one sign up Let the lactation consultant know and they approve and everything kind of goes through smoothly or if you want to call and talk to somebody about what does the consultation look like do I really need one help me set it up because I don’t want to go online and do it you can call um 801-210-9696 I believe I do the same I’m like wait a second here I don’t know but it’s also on our website perfect and you can talk to Rachel who will answer the phone or give you a call back or you can text her even and we can set it up that way so we try to kind of have all of that available but the nice thing is that we serve virtually so if you live in an area that we don’t serve in person we can do a virtual consultation we serve all of Utah County and kind of surrounding areas there all of Salt Lake County and surrounding areas into Tooele Davis County Park City um and can go to your home and so depending on which area you live in you can choose that area choose the lactation consultant that serves that area and then schedule which whichever time works best for you that they’re available

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing I love how easy that is and you have people everywhere to help which is so great yeah okay um next question is what what’s something that most people don’t know about your profession or your business or what you guys do that you think that people should know about

Anna Burch: yeah I think one of the biggest things when it comes to lactation Consultants is that people think that we only help with breastfeeding and so they’re like if I’m not breastfeeding if I’m pumping then you can’t help me or if I’m bottle feeding my baby or if I’m starting to introduce solids like you can’t help me and there’s so many different aspects that we can actually help with that a lot of people are amazed when they call in and like well I’m I’m not breastfeeding I’m pumping and I just have some questions about that and we’re like yeah we can do a consultation on that we can actually fit you make sure you have the correct flange size on your pump we can make sure that you’re pumping most effectively we can help you know about different types of bottles and the best way to bottle feed your baby whether that’s with breast milk or with formula we can help you figure out weaning we can talk about introducing solids when to do that how to do that what that means for your breast milk supply if you are lactating and how to incorporate all of that together um we can really help with everything that might be affected in the time frame that you are lactating and creating breast mold um so and that’s that’s a really nice thing that we can even help to the very end of you’re wanting to wean and what does that process look like for you we can create a personalized plan to get you from your five feedings a day to nothing and kind of figure out how that will work best for you it’s not that we only serve moms that are breastfeeding and we only serve them in the first two weeks postpartum like I don’t I feel I feel like so very yeah very I’m I’m outside of this little area and I’m not feeding my baby at the breast so therefore you can’t help me and that’s not true just all that’s well

Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah that’s amazing such a great tidbit there I think a lot of people don’t know those things for sure okay for you is what is the main thing that you or your business you want to be known for

Anna Burch: oh that’s a good one um I think that I would love the Lactation Collection to be known for all of our different resources that we have available um whether they’re paid resources or all the free resources that we offer but I would love that if in the state of Utah or even outside of Utah if people were to think of lactation support if they thought of the Lactation Collection and all the different resources that we had and have available for them

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing okay is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience watching anything at all

Anna Burch: um I would just like to reiterate all the different resources that we do have specifically our online breastfeeding Basics class if you are pregnant in preparing to breastfeed or even kind of on the fence of deciding whether you want to breastfeed or not it’s a very informative and educational course to be able to give you all the information from the benefits of breastfeeding to how the body works with breastfeeding where to start with that first latch right after having baby and kind of what to expect after that it really is so helpful and I would highly encourage any and every pregnant woman to take it to help prepare for breastfeeding

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing okay and you already said your website and your phone number again just repeat your website one more time for the audience so they know where to find you and where to go

Anna Burch: it’s thelactationcollection.com and you can also find us on Facebook or Instagram at the Lactation Collection

Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing thank you so much Anna for being on our Spotlight Series today and thank you for all that you’re doing in our community here in Utah and continue to go change the world

Anna Burch: thanks