One on One Consults: Why We Don’t Do Them and What We Do Instead
One on one consults are great for some things. For example, they’re great for learning how to help your baby latch while breastfeeding. But, here’s why New Little Life doesn’t do one on one consults in our business and why we love the way that we get to help moms individually instead of doing one on one consults.
(This post was originally a video. Check it out, here!)
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Pumping for Working Moms Program
For context, we do work with mothers individually inside the Pumping for Working Moms Program but not the way that most lactation consultants do.
- To join the Pumping for Working Moms Program you pay a one-time fee.
- Then, you get lifetime access to our experts, which is really cool, along with an extensive curriculum which you can do at your own pace.
- We have a group forum where you and our experts can communicate.
- Also, we have a weekly group Zoom call where we can actually chat one-on-one together in a group setting.
There’s a few reasons that we have the Pumping for Working Moms program structured this way which is what we will cover in this blog post! We’re going to tell you about why we do that and why we actually think this might be better than one-on-one consults for what we’re doing.
One on One Consults are Bad for Busy Moms
Let’s start with the most important reason we don’t do one-on-one consults, and that is because we’ve found that our ongoing program works better for busy working moms than a one time consult. You don’t need another appointment in your life! Anything that you can do on your own time, and let’s be honest you’re probably multitasking, is better and it seems to be more effective than a one-time consult. We wouldn’t have structured our program this way if it didn’t work very well for the people that we’re trying to help. We’ve tested it. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to check out these reviews.)
Ask Questions and Get Answers Same Day
Second, you can get same day answers to your questions. Since we don’t have to coordinate our schedules together and make an appointment or have it multiple days out or next week, you can simply ask questions to our experts and they can respond the same day.
This is a huge perk because a lot of times you have little simple questions that don’t require a full one-on-one consult. The way that we have the Pumping for Working Moms program structured you can ask a question, the experts can respond later that day when they have a moment and then you can just move along.
You Might Find Answers to Your Questions in Our Course or Group
Third, everybody has the same questions (and we don’t mean this in a bad way!) When you have a very focused group like we do, we work exclusively with working moms who are combining breastfeeding and pumping, everybody is doing basically the same thing. So, we built our course around the most common questions working moms have.
This extensive curriculum that’s already built for you answers ninety percent of your questions. Of course, you do have a unique situation, but we find that a lot of the time it’s also very similar to the mom next to you who’s also a working mom.
When we do one-on-one consults, we find ourselves saying a lot of the same things over and over and over. That’s why we’ve compiled it all together for you in the Pumping for Working Moms Program!
What’s Covered in Our Program
Now, once everyone’s gone through the curriculum and moms start asking questions, everybody has the same base knowledge.
Then, we can start the conversation so much further ahead of the basics. Some of the basics covered in the course are:
- How to pump
- What settings to use
- How to measure your flange size
Teaching the basics in the course works better. It saves time for all of us!
The Group Forum is one of the Best Things about Our Program!
In the community group forum you can also search questions and see what questions other working moms have. Usually, they have similar questions to you. Anytime we get the same question asked a few times, our experts just make a new lesson in the curriculum. Then, it’s already there for when you need it.
Now, we also do have a HIPAA secure email for anything sensitive like if you need to send photos to help with flange sizing etc. But, the group forum works well for most things. It’s not like your normal Facebook group where you ask a question and then random people are answering it, it’s our main form of communication. Sometimes working moms with very similar situations will pop on and give ideas too. It’s one of the best parts of our Pumping for Working Moms Program.
Lifetime Access to an Expert instead of One Time One on One Consult
Fourth, we don’t do one-on-one consults and instead work only inside this program because you are going to have more than one question. Lifetime access to an expert is important. We want you to feel the peace that you can feel knowing that someone is there for you anytime.
Only Cry Once
One of the favorite things that my dad used to tell me was “Only cry once.” He used to say that when we were looking for a product or service or something and comparing them together. Oftentimes, the one that is the bigger investment up front caused less problems and less anxiety and stress further down the road. I’ve used this over and over in my life, when buying a rug or a new bed or a new vacuum, etc. Sometimes it’s better to just make that bigger investment right up front instead of doing cheaper options.
-Allison tolman, ibclc and founder of new little life
You want more than just a band-Aid fix to your the problem. If you use trial and error to fix your pumping problems, you often spend a lot of money on breast pumps or on consults with lactation consultants who aren’t trained in pumping. Even if those consults are covered through your insurance, that’s still a lot of time, stress and anxiety doing that with someone who’s just not experienced. You might spend money on expensive milk supply supplements, or formula. These costs can really add up. So, we’ve adopted that only cry once mentality in the way that the Pumping for Working Moms Program is structured.
What Members of the Program Think
One of our recent graduates of the Pumping for Working Moms Program said something that really stuck to us. She’s just weaned from the pump and met her goals beautifully. She did an excellent job! Here is what she said:
I wasn’t sure about the initial upfront cost. I thought I wanted more of a membership option. But, I soon realized that it was so freeing not to have the continuous pressure of deciding each month whether I still needed help or not. When things were going well, they were great. When they weren’t, I needed help right away. I love that the program was always available and I’m glad it’s set up this way.
-Program Member of Pumping for Working Moms
We hear this a lot, especially for those who join the program. They’re like, “okay, yeah, I can see why it’s this way and it works really well.”
You’re going to have more than one question and we want to be there with you through this whole process.
Our Program Teaches You to be Your Own Detective
Fifth, we don’t want you to have to rely on a professional every time you have a question. Actually, one of the goals in the Pumping for Working Moms Program is to teach you how to be your own detective. We want you to understand how pumping works and how your milk supply works so that you can figure out how to solve issues yourself. It’s important to have realistic expectations of what’s happening with your milk output and also know how to troubleshoot issues as they come up. Being your own detective can bring you calm confidence that you know what you’re doing. This is the main goal of the program!
If you still need professional support after going through the course, our experts are always there, too. Our experts are inside the program every day helping members, but we’re doing it at a more advanced level because they’ve all learned all of the basic stuff that everybody needs to know.
This Set-Up Works Best for our Experts, too!
Sixth, in full transparency this is better for our experts, too. We’re also working moms and our schedules are limited. If you’re not available between 8 and 1 pm Eastern Time on school days, then it’s really difficult for us to connect.
The Pumping for Working Moms Program has members from all over and your schedules are crazy, too! So, we’ve structured this program to be flexible and accommodate all kinds of schedules. New Little Life started out with just Allison, but now we’ve got a whole team! This allows us to help even more moms who are combining breastfeeding and pumping.
If you are a research driven and goal-oriented working mom who wants knowledge and support from a professional, we would love to talk to you. We use an application call process because we respect your money and our time. We want to make sure that we actually have what you’re looking for and what’s going to help you before we both invest in each other. It’s important to us that you meet your feeding goals in a calm and confident way and we’re here to help if you need it.
So here’s the link to apply to the Pumping for Working Moms Program! My team loves getting to know working moms and answering your questions, so feel free to schedule a call anytime you can! Happy pumping.
