Bio

Melissa was born and raised locally in Millbury, MA and is the oldest of 7 children and 15 grandchildren. Being around babies, bellies and boobies her entire life, it is only fitting that she would one day become a maternity nurse! Melissa graduated at the top of her nursing class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006 and then moved to Syracuse, NY where she worked in high risk obstetrics for 3 years. In Syracuse she realized that, while essential for high risk situations, the medical model of maternity care was doing a great disservice to low-risk, healthy women and babies, leading to parent disempowerment , low breastfeeding rates and a cascade of unnecessary medical interventions. This experience sparked her passion for “high touch, low tech” evidenced based maternity care and eventually lead her to a job in labor and delivery at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA where she worked for 3 years alongside of one of the largest autonomous midwifery practices in all of New England. While pregnant with her first child in 2012, Melissa accepted a job as an office nurse for Atrius Health and worked in the outpatient OBGYN setting for 4 ½ years. This position afforded her the opportunity to work with women throughout their entire pregnancy, from preconception care to postpartum support including postpartum depression/anxiety advocacy and lactation counseling and she became a certified lactation counselor in 2014. She returned to inpatient maternity care in March of 2017 to work as a Labor, Delivery and Postpartum nurse at a hospital in Central Massachusetts.



Melissa has been teaching local childbirth classes since she became a certified childbirth educator (CCE) in 2011 and has been teaching the New Baby & Postpartum Ready class at Babies in Common since 2016. However Melissa has been a part of the Babies in Common family since she started attending Breastmilk & Conversation nursing support groups in 2012 (which she enthusiastically credits her breastfeeding success to during her first year of motherhood!) Her “New Baby & Postpartum Ready” class is inspired by the shock of new parenthood that she experienced despite her professional baby experience, her own two very different babies and the good and bad advice she received as a new mother and is also heavily grounded in evidenced-based maternity and pediatric care. Melissa is passionate about parents having options and opinions and believes education, preparation and support are the key to an empowering first year of parenthood!

Location

6 Maple Street Northborough Massachusetts 1532

Languages

English

Insurance

Yes

HSA/FSA

Yes

Home visits

Yes

Lactation Expertise

Breast augmentation or reduction

Extended breastfeeding

Inverted and flat nipples

Latch issues

Low milk supply

Oversupply

Postpartum depression

Relactation

Returning to work

Tongue tie