Like many woman before her, Amy Pizzuti-Brown’s interest and passion
for breastfeeding began when she became a mother. It was only when she
was expecting her first child and started reading the abundance of
parenting literature did she realize how important breastfeeding is for
the long term health of both children and mothers. However, to her
surprise she discovered that breastfeeding is hard work, both time
consuming and exhausting. It was certainly not the rosy picture of
maternal happiness that she once envisioned. Out of this struggle grew
her desire to become a support for women like herself and she proceeded
to research the steps she would need to follow in order to become a
lactation consultant. Ultimately, her search led her to Union Institute
& University, which has one of the few programs for lactation
consulting in the United States. UI&U set up affiliation agreements
with local hospitals and breastfeeding programs for Amy to complete the
required internship within her Master of Arts application courses. Amy
describes her experience:
“I found the M.A. Program exciting and challenging as I found my way
around academia. At the completion of my program, I had interned at a
hospital, a non-profit, and a city health department. I believe that it
was due to the diversity of job experience in the program that qualified
me to be considered for a position as perinatal educator and lactation
consultant at Del Sol Medical Center. I am incredibly proud and very
excited that my final document, 'Guilt, Breastfeeding and Health
Behavior Change' was recommended for both publishing and presenting at
an upcoming international conference on breastfeeding."
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