ROOTLOVE LACTATION SERVICES - Key Persons

Heather Elkins is a board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) and founder of RootLove Lactation Services. The birth of her son in 2013 opened her eyes to the incredible world of lactation-both through her own initial challenges with and then love of breastfeeding her son, and through volunteer work as a breastfeeding peer counselor for Boulder County's Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program. Heather greatly enjoyed counseling WIC participants on the benefits of breastfeeding and helping them troubleshoot breastfeeding challenges. She soon decided that she wanted to expand on her breastfeeding education, first becoming a Certified Lactation Counselor in 2015, after completing a 40-hour lactation training through the Healthy Children Project's Center for Breastfeeding, and then pursuing board certification through the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners in 2015-2018. This required (among other coursework) 90 hours of lactation-specific education and 500 mentored hours of clinical internship, where Heather worked directly with breastfeeding parents and babies in all aspects of lactation management. Heather completed her internship under the guidance of Amanda Ogden at the Mama'hood in Denver, Colorado. Heather obtained her law degree from the University of Colorado in 2006 and practiced as a health care attorney for seven years before leaving full-time legal practice to stay at home with her infant son. Heather continues to use her legal training in her part-time work with Boulder County as a breastfeeding policy and environments specialist, where she advocates for breastfeeding parents, especially as they face common barriers to breastfeeding like returning to work or finding a physician that supports their breastfeeding goals. Heather is now a mother of two children, her daughter was born in 2015, and lives with them and her husband in Boulder, Colorado. In addition to listening to as many podcasts on lactation support as possible, she enjoys hiking and camping in the mountains of Colorado in the family's 1985 Westfalia Vanagon, baking, and watching her children grow.