Comprehensively Supporting Parents Beyond Six Weeks: The Mama Coach Covers Top Postpartum Tips.

Ashli Daley shares her comprehensive approach to healthily transitioning to parenthood. As an experienced Registered Nurse, Ashli shares her value in having a trusted support network. Ashli shares her expertise in and mission for prenatal education, postpartum and newborn support, lactation and feeding, consultation, sleep coaching, CPR & choking instruction, and car seat education.
She believes that it takes a village as we navigate the uncharted waters of our own experience through parenthood. Ashli's goal is to guide families through every stage of their journey by providing evidence-informed education, infused with non-judgmental support, compassion, and empathy.

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Baby's learning a new skill, their brains spend much more time in light sleep. It lasts for about two weeks, and then they pop up with a new skill. If we know that that's what's happening, lean into that and lean into what your baby is asking for. But don't necessarily feel like, oh, I need to fix this, because my babies know Welcome to perinatal and reproductive perspectives. This is a podcast where we empower birthing individuals, partners and health professionals with evidence based insights, holistic strategies and relatable stories hosted by a healthcare expert. This podcast fosters understanding equity and growth in perinatal and reproductive health. Here's your host, Becky Morrison gleed, hello, everyone. I am so excited to have Ashley daily. She is the owner of the mama coach, and she is here to cover all sorts of topics today. Welcome Ashley, thank you. Thank you for having me. Yes. Thanks for coming. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and if you have a story to share, I want to open it up so our audience and listeners can get to know you a little bit better, absolutely. So my name is Ashley. I am a registered nurse. I am also a child passenger safety technician. I'm a lactation consultant and a baby sleep expert. I spent five years of my nursing career working in the NICU so I actually started working as a NICU nurse in Pennsylvania, and worked there as a staff nurse for three years before I left and dived into the traveling world a little bit. So I did a little bit of travel nursing for two years, and had the opportunity of traveling to different states and working in different NICUs and seeing how they all operate. And the one thing that stood out to me was there, there is a huge gap in, you know, having a baby and then bringing them home. Yes, enough. I, during my time traveling, I there were, like, no NICU contracts. So I think it's a spring time for us. That's just this weird thing in the NICU world, where we just have, like, very little babies. So no one needed travel nurses, and so I had to make money, and I needed to pay bills, so I picked up nannying, and I found a family that had a six week old. The mom, it was her first baby. She had adopted the little guy, and she was getting ready to go back to work at six weeks. So I was able to help them temporarily with childcare, like full time childcare for a couple weeks until I was able to find my next contract. And at the end of our time together, the mom said to me, you know, you should really be a baby coach. I was like, that's cute, but no nurses work in the hospitals, and that's just what I'm going to do. And but for whatever reason, it just stuck with me. So I ended up googling baby mom coach and found a company called the mama coach, which is a brand that was born in Canada, and now we've expanded across the US and globally. We have nurses in New Zealand and Australia and all over the world. So it's actually really neat how expansively we've been able to support families. And so I honestly didn't skip a beat the second I saw the mama coach. I found their mission. I hopped in right away, like dove in head first. And I was like, I want to do this. This is exactly what I've been wanting to do. And now here I am learning how to run a business and actually help as many moms as I possibly can. I love it, and I know for myself, personally, I don't just give those compliments or comments. So the fact that she said you should do this tells me it's like you have a natural gift and you've been able to operationalize it. So amazing. Yes, what stands out in terms of some experiences you could share from having been in the NICU? So I will say again, I felt like there was a huge gap from bringing, you know, having baby to bringing baby home. And I know working in the NICU there, it's very different, right? You have a baby, the baby doesn't come home with you. There's they spend some time with some professionals and get a little bit better before they are ready to go home. And even coming from the NICU, you could still see that there was that gap of sending a baby home from the NICU and having that family go from having this constrained environment where you know you're you're so restricted on all the things you can do, and then you go home and you're just allowed to do whatever you want with your baby. And so I felt like there was a huge gap there. And then hearing from that mom that I had worked with, with her explaining, you know, how impactful my work was on helping her feel more confident as a mom. With her first baby. I think that was an eye opener for me. But also, I tend to stay in touch. I like to build relationships with my family. So there were quite a lot of families from the NICU that I kept in touch with even after they were discharged. And incredible, like some of the feedback from families like, you know, I really wish I had, you know, someone there that could help me when I made that transition from bringing baby to home. I really wish I had this. I really wish I had that. So that tells me that there is, there is a gap, and there is some support that's missing from parents as they navigate that transition from hospital, birth center to home. I think you highlight that so well, that when babies aren't born with handbooks, and every you know babies, there's a variety of temperaments and medical conditions, and there's so many variations, but the transition from the hospital home, there isn't a bridge. And so for you, what I'm hearing is you can offer that gentle transition, supportive role to help parents. Yeah, I think too to highlight, I remember when we met, it was in Pompano Beach at the motherhood Summit, and we were at a big table. There were quite a few people. I was, you know, showing the person next to me in my workbook, and she says, You have got to talk to Ashley. And I love it. Love it, um, and it, you know, your energy is infectious, and I really want to accentuate that to listeners. This mama coach, brings really positive energy, and it goes beyond just the clinical. This is how you do CPR, this is how you do you know, X, Y and Z, to have someone who's seen it can empathize with it and then turn it into something like allied is truly incredible from my perspective, and it's it's another part of meeting families. I think that's why I fell in love with the brand so much. It's meeting families where they are and giving the same compassionate care we would give in a hospital, but give it to them in their home where they need it the most. And it's a very different pace, at least for me, coming from such a high stress, high acuity areas, the NICU. Because when I worked in the NICU, I was often times with the very, very sick babies, and so, you know, they kept you on your toes quite a lot. And now in a space where you know everyone's healthy, and it's supporting families in a different way. It's so much more rewarding, and it's it's really empowering to watch families and their confidence just grow overall, like when you're able to meet them where they are, where they are, and give them tools to feel more confident. Absolutely and the piece about Okay, are you healthy enough for discharge? Okay, you've checked that box. You're going home with your baby. And how do we keep New parents, birthing individuals, healthy beyond those first six weeks, like the first year? I love the piece that you include in your services about toddler sleep training, it's not just newborn or infant. It encompasses, oftentimes, the whole family. I really love that inclusion piece. Is there anything you would specifically before we move past the NICU like any advice or words that you would offer NICU families? I would say, know that there is support out there. My one advice is, don't feel like you have to figure it out all alone. You are in a space where you have the doctor, the nurses, everyone to lean on and ask for help and questions while you are in the NICU. And don't feel like once you're home, that support has gone away. The support is still there. You might have to build a different village and a village outside of the hospital, but don't try and figure everything out by yourself. Ask for help. Don't try to be the whole village. Yes, yes. You don't have to do it alone. Yes, especially in the United States, it's such splintered care, but there are folks like you practicing a different model, and you know you can facilitate that integrated care and community village mentality, definitely. Well, tell us a little bit more about the different services that you offer, yes, so they range based off what a family needs. So I can support a family in any aspect in the first three years of life, and what that means is not three years of life or three years of care, sure. So I support families as early as pregnancy and during the period. Prenatal period, I offer more more so education versus support. I feel like the support piece really comes through in the postpartum period, but lots of education in the prenatal period. So I teach labor and birth classes. I teach prenatal breastfeeding classes. I teach about other feeding options. So if families want to pump formula feed, bottle feed their babies. I do classes about that as well. I teach families about antenatal hand expression, which is hand expressing milk before baby is born, so that you can have that colostrum stored and take it with you to the hospital. I have that as a free workshop on my website. So I do a lot of prenatal education, and then in the postpartum period, I do a lot of focus on lactation and sleep. So feeding and sleep is two of the things. I say it goes hand in hand. And you know, if feeding is going really well, then a baby has the capacity to sleep well as well. And I think once families can find their groove and their confidence and understanding what normal sleep looks like, and, you know, like just finding their rhythm and what works for them, then they it really makes a bit a better impact on, like, their family, how their their family functions as a whole. So that's what I do in the postpartum period. I do in a special newborn package or newborn service for families where I go to the home, or we meet virtually, and then after our visit, what's really special is that I follow up with you, so it's not just a one and done visit. I'm usually with you for at least a month, checking in every week to make sure things are going well, or tweaking things as they need to be tweaked. Other services I offer, as I mentioned, I'm a child passenger safety technician, so I do concierge car seat checks for families in the community. I also teach CPR for families. So I break it down from the medicalized diversion into more actionable steps that families can understand. I know a lot of times when we we learn CPR, it is taught from a very medicalized perspective, but when we can actually teach families and again, meet them where they are with understanding what to look for at home and what to actually do at home, it makes such a difference in their confidence. And so those are just some of the stuff that I offer. So prenatal education, Postpartum Support, car seat, CPR, sleep, I didn't mention sleep. Yes, yes, um, we'll get more into that. This is just incredible. And I'm hearing both comprehensive and individualized, that you tailor all of these different services to the unique needs of the individual, the family, and it's comprehensive. So you have such a you're not just coming in and doing lactation consulting. You can offer anything from like, let's get into the car and see how safe this is to hand expressing milk. And we call that the perinatal span of conception to one year postpartum, but you encompass the three year which I think is so beautiful, and other countries are are using that model as well. I'm guessing can maybe that came from the roots in Canada. I think the brand, and honestly, the three year model is, is just based off my comfort level. But the brand itself, they go up to 10 years because, yeah, we also help families navigating potty training. I'm not a potty training so I stay awake. Need support with potty training. Potty Training is something we help with, and we've also just tucked into the women's health circle. So looking at menopause, perimenopause, hormone, Hormonal Health and popping into fertility now as well. So we're trying to really grow and help as many families as we can from, again, that preconception to far, as far postpartum as they need us. Yeah, we share that in common, in terms of that intersection of the two big pillars of of the folks that I support is the perinatal and then reproductive. And I think we're seeing that more and more the importance of it's the biggest hormone shift that the human body undergoes. Why would we not consider a reproductive component, whether it's medical or mental health or, you know, how it affects the family as a whole to really consider some of that. So kudos to you all for incorporating that. Um, yeah, what? Um, what can we highlight in terms of sleep? What? What should parents know? Oh, sleep is so, so, so personal to every family. And one of the biggest mottos and things that I repeat, mantras I'll say, I repeat to families all the time, is it's only a problem if it's a problem for you. Now, there is such a huge range of normal when it comes to baby sleep and. And this is why it's it's more so important for our family to look into their own instincts, look into their own baby, what their baby is doing and like, trust your gut when it comes to your baby's sleep. Yes, you know, there's a lot of well meaning advice. And I'll say I post advice on on social media too. I try to stay away from the sleep advice. So so much, just because there is such a huge range of normal and don't want to label a child as abnormal because someone on the internet said that's not normal, right? So there's certain red flags that I would say you can look out for when it comes to sleep, and usually those are just related to other things. And most often it's related to feeding too, but if there's any feeding struggle, so if you're if we're working with a baby, like a young baby, even from the newborn period up until, I would say, 18 months, if they're mouth breathing, they're waking every hour, or or even less than an hour. If you know you're you're struggling mentally with, you know, the erratic maps and all the the craziness of their schedule. Like, absolutely, those are things to, you know, find someone to help, for support to help with. But if things feel like they're happening in a way that makes sense for your baby, like, let's say your instincts say, I think my baby's going through a sleep regression, which I hate that term, too. Um, I prefer, I prefer developmental progression, because that's usually what's happening. Yeah, that's usually what's happening. It's a it's a baby's learning a new skill. Their brains spend much more time in light sleep. It lasts for about two weeks, and then they pop up with a new skill. If we know that that's what's happening, lean into that and lean into what your baby is asking for. But don't necessarily feel like, oh, I need to fix this, because my baby's now, you're maybe not learning, baby, you're not a problem to be fixed. I hear that a lot, and it's, it's valid when you're sleep deprived, or maybe you have some postpartum anxiety, wanting to really find ways to control the sleep. It makes a lot of sense. However, I'm hearing that it's, it's more complicated, and there's interplays from a variety of factors, including feeding. But ultimately, and you'll have to repeat this quote, but I think I heard you say it's only a problem if it's a if it's a problem for you. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I have sometimes families who they'll tell me, my baby wakes once at night to eat. Is that okay? Absolutely. Is it a problem for you? If it's not a problem, they're like, Yeah, I don't mind feeding my baby at night. Most families don't. So there's nothing wrong with that. Most babies will feed and again, that's why I say there's such a huge range of normal a baby, some babies will feed zero times at night. Some babies will feed once at night. Some babies won't feed twice at night. It's all normal. So how do we tell a parent don't feed your baby? Because it's only normal if they feed once at night. It there's a lot of gray area when it comes to sleep. So it, it's there's a lot of pieces to the sleep puzzle, I like to see, but usually it's only a problem if it's really a problem for you. Yeah. Thank you for normalizing that for our listeners. I think a lot of people, it'll resonate with them. I mean, how often are we going to play groups or interacting where it's this metric of my baby sleeps through the night, that somehow it's a gold star when who's to say what normal is? And news flash, no one sleeps through the night, even as a what do they say sleep like a baby? I'm like, I don't think we we don't. Right? Yeah, no, we do. Yes. So I have a question. A lot of the the moms that I work with in my practice are working moms, and oftentimes, I'm going to use the word that you said developmental progression of oftentimes that coincides with a return to work, just because, you know it might be at the three month mark, it might land on the six month. And I don't know you can speak to the research behind those time frames, but just anecdotally, I will notice that they will fall during those time periods, which is really hard. Do you have any advice or recommendations for approaching those tough transitions? Yes, so let me first start by explaining what's happening with a baby? There are so many things going on with the mom baby dynamic. So a parent is returning to work, that's a huge life transition and a huge stressor on both parties. The baby is exiting what we call that fourth trimester, where they're now finally. Realizing that, hey, I'm a human being and I'm here, and what is this world around me? And then another thing that we really learn how to do at this stage is move and like, starting to really move and roll. And so a lot of times big gross motor skills like that can impact sleep. Now, another thing that's happening in that around that three four month mark is what people deem the four month sleep regression, which is typically a progression in a baby sleep cycle, so a baby swapping from a newborn sleep cycle. So sleep like a newborn to now sleeping like more like us as adults. And instead of sleeping in two stages, they now sleep in five around that stage, I usually say this is a really, really good time to hone in on your sleep routines. You get really, really clear about what your sleep routines are going to look like for your baby. Look at you know how you're helping your baby to fall asleep and ensure that your responses are consistent. So if you are planning to help, you know if you're planning to rock your baby to sleep. That's that's totally okay. Rock them to sleep. Don't add anything new, like when babies going through those periods of regression, which is which you would notice when, if they're having a harder time going down for naps, they're waking more frequently. What you don't want to do is add something new that you don't want to continue. So let's say babies going through this regression, you typically rock them to sleep. And now, instead of rocking them to sleep because they're having such a hard time going down during this, this period of a regression, you know, bring them into bed with you, and then once the regression passes, they're left with that as a new association with sleep. And then that's the only way that they'll go to sleep. Now, is they only want to be in bed with you. So I say, hone in on your sleep routines. Get really, really clear and consistent with what those routines look like on what they are, and Don't start anything new that you don't want to continue after the regression passes. What a helpful, tangible, practical tip, don't try anything new. Don't try anything new. Yes, yes. How about the transitioning back to work with feeding, like perhaps they're exclusively breastfed, or maybe there's some type of hybrid. Do you have any tips for that process? Yes, so I say start early. Start the preparation. Early. Know your workplace rights and know you know all the breastfeeding laws that are in place to protect you, because there are, there are laws that protect breastfeeding parents prepared. So I know that bottle feeding is one of the scariest things for some families, and one of the things that I help families, so I don't think I mentioned that, is to move past bottle refusal. So there's some babies, for whatever reason, they they have a pick your time with certain bottles. They are pickier about who offers the bottle. Sometimes it is a true anatomical reason why baby won't take a bottle. But this is why I usually say, if you plan to exclusively breastfeed, where you're offering breast milk via nursing and via a bottle start practicing early. Bottle feeding is also a skill for babies, just as breastfeeding is, and we want to give them time to practice that skill and not learn right when you're about to go back to work, when there's no other option. So give yourself and baby time to practice those skills together. So practicing the bottle feeding. You know, take, I say, Take little breaks away from baby. It's going to be a really hard transition. Take little breaks away from baby as much like, as often as you can. In terms of, like, maybe you run to the grocery store by yourself and not with the baby. Someone's obviously watching the baby. But take, like, great idea, breaks, micro break so that you get used to being away from your baby for for longer periods of time. Gosh, I wish I had you when I was postpartum with my second I think I started, like a week before going back to work, she was exclusively breastfed, and I was thinking, a week is fine. I've got like nine different types of bottles, and she refused, yeah, she would not take it. So I think my husband ended up bringing her to me at work, like three times that first week. It was, it was a complete circus, yeah? Then my sister sent me, like, this $2 bottle that was a hand me down, and of course, she took that spending a small fortune in bottles like I'll never forget that, but so start early. I wish I had that advice when I was postpartum. But for the individuals listening to this, it's never too early to start at least introducing because you said, it's a different skill set for bottle versus breastfeeding. Yes, there are ways to optimize bottle feeding where it doesn't disrupt your breastfeeding relationship, but it's really not too early to start. Okay, and let's say there's a mom back at work pumping for the first couple. Couple weeks. Do you have any tips or tricks for that? Mom? Sometimes I'll recommend, like, a playlist or bring you pictures of your baby. Pictures of the baby are my number one recommendation. They'll have lots of pictures on your phone, and one thing that we did in the NICU is having scent cloth. And sometimes I'll even tell families to do that now, like, take if your baby was wearing a certain onesie during the night, bring that wanting with you so know your baby and have them have something full like very close by, if you can FaceTime while you're at work, and FaceTime your baby beautiful. So anything that's going to increase oxytocin or your happiness, that's going to help, help increase your milk output and keep your your breastfeeding relationship going inversely. I tell moms the shirt that they slept in the night before that that can also go to the baby has this set in return. The same concept, yeah, I actually do that with one of my nanny family. So I nanny on the side of still, Nanny, have a little, a little six month old who he has, I wouldn't, I don't think his separation anxiety has peaked, but he definitely has some separation anxiety. And when it's nap time, he loses it. Yes, or new thing, and it's, it's worked so far, yeah, but it's worked so far. Mom, any shirt that mom sleeps in, we put it in a sleep space, and then we take it out. Once he gets it, he falls asleep, and then we remove it, and all good. He just needs to smell mom, yeah, what a great tip, and thinking outside of the box, can it sounds like you can never be too creative? Yeah, no, absolutely, yeah, and trying little tweaks and tips and tricks to help make your life easier, yes, and I want to highlight given just all of your services and comprehensiveness and natural abilities is that you're you are physically in South Florida. And so for anyone who's listening in South Florida, use Ashley, she's clearly phenomenal. And for anybody outside of South Florida that you offer virtual services, help help our audience understand how that might look a little bit different or not look different for some of these different services, right? So typically, any one of my services, they include a 90 minute to two hour consultation. So whether it is a feeding consultation, it's a newborn consultation, it's a sleep consultation. And during that time, in addition to me being able to do like my assessment and grab everything that I need to know about your baby, your family, your parenting style, temperament, feeding routines, all these things, you're then able to ask me as many questions as as you have. I often times as much as I say that my consults are usually about nine times to two hours, if I'm being truthful, I'm usually there for closer to three hours just answering questions. I try not to rush families through the process, because I understand that you have a lot of questions. There is a huge gap between having baby and bringing them home, so I give families that time to answer any of their questions. So whether it's in their home or virtually, I'm able to spend that one on one time with families, answer all their questions, do my full, thorough assessment, and then from there is when I'm able to create a plan, a feeding and sleep plan for you. And after or consults, I don't leave you high and dry. We are in constant communication for at least someone, just to make any tweaks as we need to see how babies responding to changes that we make, to see how you're responding to changes that we make, and honestly, to celebrate wins. I'm realizing that moms don't know how to celebrate their wins. They know how to agree we need our dopamine hits. Yes, better, yes, yes, yes, yeah, celebrate the wins. Yeah, even if they're really, really small, like I'll share, there's a family I'm working with right now, and they're making the transition away from nursing their baby to sleep, to work on, to start practicing, like, independent sleep skills. And the mom was telling me about, oh my gosh, all his naps are short, and he's sleeping six hours at night and then waking up and and I was like, Wait, but you you're no longer feeding to sleep. And she and I'm like, you're sitting here talking to me. I'm like, you're sitting here talking to me by yourself. You don't have a baby in your hand right now, and she's like, you're right? I didn't even realize that connections, right? That's where you come in. So I guess I could ask, let's say that we've, you know, we find you so wonderful. We need you longer than a month. Can clients purchase like an extension of services? Yes. So I. I haven't officially, officially launched it yet. It's just a soft launch right now, but I membership program called Baby bites. Great. They're for$1 a day. These will have 365 day access to me to ask any questions that they have, and then they're able, they're also able to book 30 minute one on ones with me as well. Okay, well, be careful, because lots of referrals come in. You're I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head. So I've seen this through the fire department of the infant or toddler car seat of making sure it's secure. But I don't think I've ever seen like a practitioner offer this, which I think is so helpful, important for safety. Can you share a little bit more about what that looks like? Yes. So I like to do a lot of education. I honestly go by what the families have. Again, it's meeting families where they are most often, like I try to do these car seat checks hands on, because I feel like it's a lot more personal when it's hands on. And I am a kinesthetic learner, so I almost need to feel and learn, because every car seat is so different. So it's complicated. It can be very complicated. So it's really, I usually tell parents, it's really important that you have your car seat manuals on hand. And you know, know the ins and outs of your car seat. Usually what we're doing is we're both going over the car seat manual together. We're looking at all the rules of the car seat. And in truth, all the rules of the car seat are actually on the car seat itself. So it tells you, You know what? As much it will tell you, as much as, like, where the handle should be, the handle should be back, or if it should be so we go through all of that together, and once we're we're able to go through where your baby's currently at. Then we talk about, like, what next steps look like, like in terms of when you would turn baby from rear facing to foreign facing, when you would upgrade from an infant car seat to a convertible car seat, so little things like that. We would go over that sounds phenomenal. And you can also do that virtually. Is that fair? Yes, I can do that. Okay. Well, and I hear this a lot, where it's you're being discharged from the hospital. What part of the checklist, at least, when I was discharged with my last is that they want to make sure that you've got your infant car seat and that it's, you know, proper. And that can be really scary for parents, especially if maybe the setting is is too low, or it's hitting the baby shoulders in the wrong way for the emotional, psychological piece for parents. Are there any words of comfort in terms of that being a really scary experience? I say give yourself grace. Grace. Yeah, yeah. It like you're you're obviously new at this, you're not this. It's normal to need help, yep, and it's okay to ask for help. I and this is where it comes from, not being judgmental and shameful towards parents because this you're doing the best that you literally can. And some like, it's unfair for someone to be like, well, you need to do better. That's the best that you can do right now. And if you're made the brave step of asking for help, then you have done the absolute best thing that you could possibly do, is asking for help. Yes, ask for help. And that doesn't end at the car seat. It can be any part of parenthood. You know, even when your kids are adults, yes, because I said it to my mom, I'm 28 thanks. My mom. Like, you've never parent like I have an older brother, but I'm like, you've never parented a 28 year old female. This is very different from parenting a 28 year old male when my brother was so I'm like, we are both mutants. I love that some I should say that to my 11 year old, I've never done this before with me, yes, and she's, you know, pre teen, like, starting puberty. I'm like, I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm very scared, and I need help. So, so normal to feel that way. Yes, yes, yeah. Well, what other questions, or what other services can we highlight you talked about, for example, the hand expression. I'm not sure that all moms know what that means. So hand expression, it's a method of collecting colostrum, so your body's first milk before baby even gets milk. So it's something that I usually recommend doing in pregnancy, and before you do it, I usually recommend talking with your OB or midwife to ensure you get clearance first, to make sure you're not at risk for preterm labor or anything like that. But usually, most birthing people will start. Producing colostrum around 20 weeks of pregnancy, and sometimes the body will even start to leak colostrum. The rule of thumb is you can start collecting that colostrum, so hand expressing or massaging all that colostrum around 37 weeks, and you can build up a store of that milk before baby gets here. So in the case of a family who has, like, a high risk pregnancy or there's gestational diabetes that play if baby ends up in the NICU, if, if the parent doesn't feel comfortable with direct breast or chest feeding, then they can use that colostrum as a bridge without needing to use formula. Like, there's absolutely nothing wrong with formula, but if you plan to ex, like, if you have the plan to exclusively breastfeed, let's say things don't go as planned during labor and delivery. Let's say, again, there's gestational diabetes, actually, where baby might need a little extra milk in the initial first days to support the blood sugar. Then you can use that colostrum, and that's your body's first milk that has all the antibodies, all the immunoglobulins, like all the gut framework for that baby you can give that instead of needing to use formula from the get go. Fantastic. And so you will again collaborate with the mom to teach, educate, yes, coordinate the clearance Yes, and then help her, help her with the mechanics of actually, kind of expressing herself, like learning how to express herself. Yeah, and collect and store that classroom and it's, it's really a tool that you carry along throughout your entire breastfeeding journey. I've had women that I've worked with even now and in their postpartum period, is when I'm teaching them how to hand Express, to help baby, to transfer milk, to help remove milk, more effectively, to help with pumping. So hand expression, not only are you collecting colostrum in your in those last few weeks of pregnancy, but you're also learning a skill that will be so valuable throughout your entire breastfeeding journey. Thank you for highlighting that value. I can absolutely relate. I remember, I think I was four or five months in, and I could feel the start of mastitis like a blocked duck duct. And I was so thankful that I had learned kind of the art and science of hand expression, because it saved me, you know, a dose of antibiotics, it saved me a lot of pain. So that can be very valuable beyond, you know, the early stages. So thank you. And something unique I don't see, you know, some of these offerings in such a comprehensive nature. So thank you. Of course, absolutely this is what I love doing. I absolutely love again, meeting families, where they are. You're pregnant. Okay, let's, let's talk about antenatal hand expression. Let's talk about newborn care. Let's talk about, what are you planning to do for feeding? Are you you have a newborn? Okay, how are things going? How is feeding going? How are you feeling with your confidence? You have a three month old, how sleep? Does it totally well. This is only by audio, but for those like, use your imagination. Ashley is just she's lighting up smiling like this is clearly something that brings you joy and very mission oriented. So it's incredible. Any like last pieces of advice that you would give new parents. Yes, you cannot pour from an empty cup. So good. Pour from an empty cup. Um, I just mentioned this to my client this morning and said to her, you know, we think that or or job is really to pour into the cup of others, and it is, it is. We are here to pour into others, but we have to pour into ourselves first, and everyone else can get our overflow. Overflow. Yes, one gets the overflow. We cannot suffer from an empty cup. If your cup is not full, you cannot be pouring into other people. And that goes for, that goes honestly. That goes for taking care of your baby too. You have to take care of yourself before you're truly able to take care of your baby and be fully there and present for your baby. You have to have to have to, even if that makes take, means taking five minutes to do some deep breaths, that means just stepping outside going, you know, taking a pillow and screaming into the pillow. If that feels good, release whatever you need to release, but you have to take care of you. You cannot pour from an empty pump. I love the overflow concept, and going beyond just the basics of sleep, eating, showering, of what, with 30 minutes of personal time look like in a day, fill your cup because the overflow is so important. Yes, yes. You're ever feeling depleted, it's because your cup is empty. Yes, be. Yes. Well, thank you so much. I think our audience will just gather so much and reach out to Ashley if you could benefit from her services. Tell us where listeners can find you. So I am on Instagram. I do post a lot of good tips and tricks for helping babies to feed and sleep well. And sometimes I post some safety tips as well. You can find me at Ashley the mama coach. So it's A, S, H, L, I, T, H, E, M, A, M, A, C, O, A, C, H, Ashley the mama pooch. And then I also have a website, which is Ashley Daily Dot the mama pooch.com and there's where you can book a free call with me to learn a little bit more about how I work with families and to see if there's any guidance that I can give you there. And then you can also browse through all my offerings. You can see my one on one workshops. You can see all my free resources that I have, like digital classic webinars and guides. So everything's listed on my website, and then I again post all up with Instagram, yes, and your website is beautiful and so user friendly. So just hop on the website, book, the consult book, the package, and also follow Ashley on Instagram. Thank you so much for coming. I'm so excited to have connected and to introduce you to our audience, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. Have a good day. If you would like to learn more about how we can help, visit our website at perinatal reproductive wellness.com, and while you are there, check out the latest edition of our book, employed motherhood. We also invite you to follow us on social media at employed motherhood. Finally, if you enjoyed listening to the show, please subscribe and rate it. Thank you. You.