Welcome to balanced breastfeeding
A nurturing space for new parents who have chosen to breastfeed
Here, we put the well-being of the parents and the newborn at the center of the postpartum experience
We follow 3 simple rules
- Feed the baby
- Protect the supply of breastmilk
- Seek help
We believe in...
safe advice
You’ll receive experienced, skilled, hands-on breastfeeding care from a seasoned, gentle healthcare professional.
Rooted in evidence and almost 20 years of intensive experience, we provide personalized care for each newborn baby, each unique pair of breasts, and each member of the breastfeeding family.
realistic strategy
Anchored in the mental and physical well-being of the breastfeeding family, together we create realistic, safe newborn feeding goals for the whole family to execute.
We couple this strategy with simple, credible, learning resources in this time of information overwhelm.
I’m katie madden
(She/Her/Mama) RN, MSN
I believe...
I believe...
Your family deserves empowerment, balance, celebration, and trusted guidance at each stage of feeding your baby: pregnancy through weaning,
If you’re struggling to see your progress, I reflect back and celebrate your successes so you can more clearly see them.
If things don’t go as planned, I hold with you any uncomfortable feelings of grief and loss.. I help you allow yourself to let go when the time is right.
I’m katie madden (She/Her/Mama) RN, IBCLC
katie madden
Lactation Consultant, Owner
Registered Nurse (RN) specializing in pregnancy, birth and postpartum care with an advanced certification in breastfeeding support as a International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).
I’m rachel curtis
(She/Her/Mama) MA, IBCLC
I believe
I draw on the rich background of living on multiple continents and learning languages, cultivating a gift for connecting across cultures and celebrating the human experience. Nowhere is this experience more pronounced and universal than the peripartum space, where women and birthing people are at their most vulnerable, and potentially most powerful, moments of their lives. I am thrilled to be a part of the team at Balanced Breastfeeding to continue bringing nurturing, guidance, and empowerment to new parents in an atmosphere of high-quality lactation care.
I’m rachel curtis
(She/Her/Mama) MA, IBCLC
rachel curtis
Lactation Consultant
I have been accompanying new families through the realm of birth and breastfeeding for six years, first as a labor doula and CLC in El Paso, Texas where I became a widely trusted community resource as The Desert Doula. My recruitment by a labor and delivery unit to be the region’s first and only hospital-based doula opened the door to earning my IBCLC credential, which I completed in 2020. I joined the Balanced Breastfeeding team in August 2022.
I’m justine deputy
(She/Her/Mama) RN, MSN
I believe
As a nurse who has worked in both maternity and pediatrics, I have a passion for caring for pregnant and postpartum parents as well as children. During nursing school I found I was most interested in supporting families in this period of life. After graduating with my BSN I worked in direct patient care with pregnant, laboring, and postpartum parents. It is an honor to be a part of such a special time in someone’s life.
After practicing for several years, I narrowed my focus to health administration. I had the interest and skills to work behind the scenes to create a positive impact on the experience and care provided to clients. When I completed my MSN in health administration, I transitioned to mainly supporting parents and their families in an administrative role. I became even more eager to support this population after having my own two children.
I’m justine deputy
(She/Her/Mama) RN, MSN
justine deputy
Practice Manager
Katie and I have worked together since 2010 and I have been a part of Balanced Breastfeeding since its early days in 2014. Today I continue to be a part of Balanced Breastfeeding as Practice Manager. I am so honored to continue to be working in an environment that prioritizes quality care for the whole parent, baby, and family.
the long story that
brought Katie here…
In 2004, Katie graduated from University of Maryland School laser-focused on perinatal healthcare, aspiring toward midwifery. She began her nursing career at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania caring for postpartum birthing parents and their newborns. Rather than the planned midwifery school path, in 2006, Katie found herself married and birthing Lucy with midwives at The Birth Center in Wilmington, DE.
As Katie learned to breastfeed her own child, Lucy, and struggled through undiagnosed postpartum anxiety, she found herself getting more and more smitten with the Birth Center community she felt holding her. By the time Lucy was 18 months, Katie was hired by the Birth Center and began attending birth with the midwives as a registered nurse. She spent some of the most treasured and difficult years of her life either breastfeeding her own child or teaching others to breastfeed immediately after birth.
In 2009, Katie earned her certification as an IBCLC to enhance her ability to support lactating parents and spent the next decade growing a busy lactation clinic with a well-attended free weekly breastfeeding support group.
A few years into holding space for postpartum parents, Katie began to notice unsettling themes in the stories they shared. Newborns were being under fed and parents were struggling.
Balanced Breastfeeding was born in 2013, and the blogs quickly turned into action as Katie launched programs and education to fill the gap in balanced breastfeeding support. She developed and delivered workshops for pregnancy, returning to work, starting solid foods, and weaning that addressed both the technical and emotional aspects of each challenging stage.
By 2018, each program was translated into online self-paced programming. Katie’s words and works spread across the region, then the country, then the world. Still to this day, she can not conceive how many eyes, ears, and hearts connected with her helpful, comforting words.
In January 2020, with a decade of breastfeeding specific career experience, Katie took the brave step into self employment and opened a warm, cozy space called: Balanced Breastfeeding Postpartum Clinic & Clubhouse
After six weeks of operating as a bustling, snuggly gathering space to learn and grow together, Covid snatched the dream of postpartum support as Katie knew it. She spent the dark pandemic deep in the work of connecting with new parents at a distance.
Katie taught herself to effectively consult virtually and safely consult in person. By 2022, Katie is happy to report Balanced Breastfeeding emerged from the pandemic stronger than she could have imagined, with a new robust virtual consulting service that allows her to care for postpartum parents anywhere in the world.
When she’s not serving new breastfeeding families you’ll find Katie writing and doodling in her journal, digging in the soil of her garden, striving daily toward affirming her nonbinary teenager, reminding herself not to forget her wonderful husband, or sleeping. Katie loves to sleep (yes you will sleep again one day too).
