About Merilee
Hello! I’m Merilee Rockefeller-Kolpaczyk
founder of Breastfeeding Support and More with Miss Merilee. I am a Registered Nurse (RN) and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) with 34 years of past experience working at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. I truly loved being a Labor and Delivery & Post-Partum Nurse and feel that being a Nurse has always been my calling. After my retirement from the hospital, I opened my little business to continue to help new and ‘to be parents’.
My passion now is being an educator teaching prenatal Evidence & Lamaze Based Childbirth Classes with a focus on relaxation and coping techniques, a private Cesarean Birth Class, and an amazing Breastfeeding Class and postpartum coming to your home and helping with any breastfeeding issues.
My love of maternal health became focused through a new lens after I had my children and experienced quite a few birth & breastfeeding “hiccups”…
When I had my first child I was sure things would go smoothly. I was a L&D/postpartum nurse for goodness sake! Ummm…nope.
After having my (and maybe a smidge unrealistic) “birth plan” go out the window when our 1st baby made an unplanned early arrival via an emergency cesarean section, working through multiple issues that ensued, including post op health issues, late preterm birth nursing problems which included poor weight gain & introduction of early supplement feedings via a bottle, nipple soreness-then nipple damage- then mastitis-then mastitis again, and the ever present low milk supply problem, I was eventually able to find my stride, trust my body, my baby, and my breastfeeding journey, and finally comes to terms with how things went.
The birth of my babies and breastfeeding my kids are some of my most treasured memories. But TRUST ME when I say I didn’t get there on my own. Especially important were #1 my family’s loving support, the clinical expertise from my supportive health care team, talented lactation consultants (IBCLC’s), my learning to slow down my pace to the baby’s pace (this was harder than I thought), and finally my new found community with other nursing moms. They all helped me in different ways navigate the ‘curve balls’ that were thrown at us and later find my own unique breastfeeding path. Those resources, along with much grace, patience, and perseverance, are what helped me be successful with my goals.
This is what I would like to help you with and is why I became a Lactation Consultant and a Childbirth and Breastfeeding Instructor. That you may gain the knowledge and confidence to guide you and your support person through your individual childbirth and breastfeeding journey’s however that looks like to you. You and your amazing baby are the stars of this show.