Welcome to Balanced Beginnings
At Balanced Beginnings, our approach is to find positive feeding solutions that balance infant nutrition with family mental health.
Our Services
In Home Consultations
Initial home visit consultations are 1.5 hours and include 2 weeks of follow-up text support
Visits may include:
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Weighing baby
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Observing a feeding
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Breast and/or Bottle
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Oral function assessment
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Help with pumping
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Answering questions/concerns
Virtual
Consults
Similar to home visits virtual visits can include observation of a feeding, help with pumping and bottle feeds and talking through questions and concerns.
Classes and Support Groups
Finding a support and community postpartum is so important! See our events for current offerings both in-person and virtual.
How Can We Help
Prenatal Consult
Knowing what to expect and exploring a variety of possible feeding plans before baby is here can be very helpful.
Pumping and Flange Fit
Finding the right pump for your needs, comfortable flanges and minimizing time pumping while maximizing output.
Bottle Refusal
Bottle refusal can be so stressful!! Infants are smart, they are usually refusing bottles for a reason and often it’s not as simple as finding the right type of bottle but more about figuring out why they are struggling with bottle feeding. We can do a full assessment and help you overcome this challenge.
Breastfeeding Support
Trouble latching, pain with latching, fast letdown, infant not transferring well, weaning from the nipple shield and many others.
Oral Function Assessment
Emily has specialized education in functional oral assessments and can help evaluate sucking patterns. She can help asses for tongue ties and identify other causes of oral function concerns.
Back to Work
We can help ease your mind before this transition and help you get a plan for maintaining your supply, resources for child care providers and make sure you know your rights as a working mom.
Milk Supply and
Breast Concerns
Low supply, oversupply, engorgement, chronic plugged ducts or mastitis, milk blebs or blisters
Combination Feeding
Feeing with a combination of both breastmilk and formula is valid choice either by choice or by necessity. Understanding the mechanics of milk supply can help you to make more educated decisions in making a plan for combination feeding.
Weaning
If you have made it past a year breastfeeding and want to continue it can be challenging to find resources sometimes. Nursing toddlers can be wonderful, but also comes with a learning curve. We can help you wean from pumping at work while still breastfeeding, help you set boundaries and navigate when it’s time to wean fully.
Direct Pay Pricing
In-Home Initial Consult
Up to 1.5 hour visit at your home within our travel area.
$200
Virtual Visit
1 hour Telehealth visit using the HIPPA compliant platform Doxy.
$125
Follow-up Visit
Follow-up appointments are available for a reduced cost to be determined based on needs, length of visits and frequency.
If you have insurance that is not accepted directly we can provide you with a superbill you can submit to insurance for potential reimbursement as an out of network claim.
You can also use HSA and FSA funds to pay for care.
One scholarship visit is offered per quarter reach out if you would like to be considered.
Insurance Coverage
Home Visit Travel Area
Emily travels within 35 miles of Lawrence. She can often travel outside of this area for a small fee, reach out for details.
About Emily
Emily Winters, RN, MSN, IBCLC
Emily Winters started her nursing career as a bedside nurse in a Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for over 10 years. After a personal experience with breastfeeding struggles and postpartum anxiety she was drawn towards lactation as a way to help other women balance their desire to breastfeed with maternal mental health. As a NICU lactation consultant Emily has years of experience helping mothers adjust their breastfeeding experience to fit current family needs. She has extensive experience with exclusive pumping, low milk supply counseling, breastfeeding after breast surgery, tethered oral tissues and helping infants with medical complications learn to breastfeed.
She has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 2017 and holds a Masters of Science in Public Health Nursing from the University of Kansas School of Nursing.
Events Calendar
Upcoming Events
Parent Support and Infant Feeding GroupFri, Jun 26Tillery Time Counseling
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Client Testimonials
Demi's Experience
Emily had a calm and knowledgable presence. She listened to me intently and took in all that I had to say. She taught me that breastfeeding can look lots of different ways, which was really helpful for me to hear. She had lots of suggestions and helped me create a plan which is what I needed. I would ten out of ten recommend her services.
Ariel's Feedback
I am so grateful to Emily for her knowledge and for her compassion during my feeding journey with my son. I exclusively pumped breastmilk, and I was surprised at how few lactation specialists had any expertise with breast pumps. Finding Emily was such a relief, because she worked with lots of pumping clients and she knew so much! She was able to troubleshoot issues with me over Zoom, over text, and over the phone. She also recommended different pumping supplies to help me customize my pump to suit my specific needs. I was able to pump for 13 months thanks to Emily's guidance and support.
Kelsey's Story
I can’t recommend Emily enough! She was recommended to us because a different health provider said our daughter might have a tongue tie. Emily has special training to assess for infant oral function and was able to meet with us at home to diagnose her tie. She was thorough and careful with her assessment and did not push getting it revised overly hard. She helped us through the process of getting our baby’s tie revised at 5 wks old and about 1 month later, she was nursing like a champ. Emily is non judgmental, very responsive to answer questions in between visits, and encouraging yet realistic with your goals. My husband and I were hesitant initially to invest in her services because it felt out of budget, but the time, stress, and health of our baby that she helped us save made the cost well worth it. Not to mention the money we’ve been able to save not paying for formula, since we would have had to opt for that without her help! Thank you Emily for all your support!
