Why Laurel?

Laurel Wilson, BSc, IBCLC, RLC, INHC, CLSP, CPPFE, CPPI owns MotherJourney and Thrive During the Transition in Larkspur, Colorado. She has her degree in Maternal and Child Health - Lactation Consulting. With over thirty years of experience working with women, parents in the childbearing year, and perinatal professionals, Laurel takes a creative approach to education. As a TEDx and International Keynote Speaker, Laurel connects with audiences with humor, straight talk, and analogies that bring each subject to life.  She is co-author of best-selling books, The Greatest Pregnancy Ever: The Keys to the MotherBaby Bond and The Attachment Pregnancy: The Ultimate Guide to Bonding with Your Baby. She is also a contributing author to Round the Circle: Experienced Doulas Share What They Learned the Hard Way and original editor of the CAPPA Lactation Educator Manual. She currently travels the world and does virtual presentations on such hot topics as Upderstanding Menopause, Who Knew - The Estrobolome and health, FemTech and Lactation, Social Media and the Pregnant Family, Epigenetics and the Microbiome and First Foods, and Cannabis and Perinatal Health.

Laurel has received her training with Institute for Integrative Nutrition, My Menopause Transformation, Union Institute and University, Regis University, University of Arizona, Healthy Children, DONA, ALACE, CAPPA, Birthworks, Whole Birth Yoga, Prenatal Parenting, and Walden University, just to name a few. She has passed the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. She strives to provide the latest techniques, research, and programs to her clients by reading numerous scientific papers and attending yearly conferences, training, and workshops and adding relevant certifications. 

Laurel is a board certified as a lactation consultant (IBCLC), and has certifications as a Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Certified Menopause Practitioner Training, Certified Lactation Support Provider, Prenatal ParentingTM Instructor, Pre and Postpartum fitness educator, and is certified to teach Whole Birth Prenatal Yoga. She served as the CAPPA Executive Director of Lactation Programs for 17 years. She previously served as a Director for the United States Breastfeeding Committee, was Senior Advisor for CAPPA, and on the board for Kindred World. She is on InJoy Health's Review Board and is a board member at large for the Colorado Breastfeeding Coalition. She also works as the Academic Development Specialist for GOLD Lactation Academy.

Laurel is a perinatal and women's health speaker, sharing her knowledge at professional conferences around the world (and in a virtual setting) on subjects ranging from hot topics in lactation to epigenetics and the prenatal environment to support for perimenopuase and menopause. She has trained thousands of professionals in the 20 Hour Lactation Educator™ Course for CAPPA. Additionally, she has taught perinatal classes to families in private and hospital settings. Laurel has created teaching strategies that facilitate better understanding of the change processes during the childbearing year. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for 30 years and has two amazing sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences.  She believes that the journey towards and into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated.