Instructor Bio - Donna Gilbert, IBCLC

Donna Gilbert is our in house Lactation Consultant. She has a Diploma in Dental Hygiene (1986) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and she is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (2009). She has had personal experience breastfeeding and she has coached births. She has been a La Leche League Leader since 2004 and is a retired leader with Attachment Parenting International.

How Donna Got Started

My experience in the birthing and breastfeeding process began in 1990 with the birth of my friend’s first child. I was her coach through her labor and delivery and then watched her nurse her child for the next year. I coached another friend a couple of years later and then a third in 1998. They also nursed their babies. When I became pregnant in 1999 my sister-in-law told me to attend a La Leche League meeting if I was planning to nurse. She had not and subsequently did not have the information or the support she needed when she wanted to nurse her first baby. I attended my one and only meeting when I was 5 months pregnant and had plans to attend the breastfeeding class offered at the birthing center, however, it was postponed and my baby came before I could attend. What happened in the weeks following the birth of my baby lead me to my mission today and that is helping pregnant women (and their spouses) prepare for nourishing and nurturing their child, second in importance only to the actual birthing of their child.