Small Techniques, Big Changes: Benefits of CST for Lactation Consultants with Melissa Schiff, IBCLC

If you've ever caught yourself moving to the next area before a release actually finished, this one's for you. I talk about the pattern I see so often when I'm mentoring newer practitioners: moving too fast, and leaving tissue half done. We go back to the idea of trading time for pressure, and why sustained contact (not more pressure) is what actually helps fascia let go. I walk you through what a release looks and feels like while it's happening, the visual cues to watch for, what it f...

If you’ve ever finished a weekend course and wondered whether you’re really ready for the babies who walk through your door, this one’s for you. I talk about why a couple of days of training can teach you techniques, but can’t teach you when to use them, especially when a baby’s nervous system is severely dysregulated, their head is significantly misshapen, or their oral dysfunction is causing real feeding struggles. I walk you through a real case of a five and a half month old who came...

You've probably heard "open airway good, closed airway bad" a hundred times, but this episode takes you way past that. I'm walking you through where a baby's face shape actually comes from and why it matters so much for how they breathe. We start with genetics, since head and jaw shape run in families, but genetics is only the starting template. From there we get into fetal position, and how something like breech, transverse, or occiput-posterior applies real, sustained force to a baby'...

In this episode, Meaghan shares a story from her clinic about co-treating a baby before a tongue tie release, and why the ease of a neck release her new staff member noticed had almost nothing to do with the neck itself. She walks through why a cord wrap in utero can pull on abdominal fascia and travel all the way up into the neck and tongue, and introduces the concept of "Snap Back," what happens when a tight neck is treated in isolation and the baby reverts back to the same pattern wi...

Can you believe it? This is episode 100, and honestly, I've been sitting with that number for a while. Five years of this podcast, releasing every other week because that's the pace that actually works for me, and this year I took the longest break I've ever taken, six months. So instead of a technique breakdown or a clinical deep dive, I wanted to use this one just to say thank you. I talk about why I love hearing that someone binged their way through ninety plus episodes in a we...