Madison Mawson

I was born and raised in Marshville, North Carolina. At 22, I met my husband at a car drag strip.  I love cars and my husband and I still enjoy them as a hobby. We were married shortly after.
After moving to Fayetteville, I attended FTCC hoping to transfer to a Physician’s Assistant program. As life has it, I became pregnant with my first son. I continued with school towards an Associate’s in Science until he was born.

Having never been exposed to breastfeeding, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to or if I would succeed. After researching and talking with friends I decided I would try, but accepted that I would bottle
feed if need be. Everything changed after he was born and I realized exactly how much I wanted to breastfeed, but I was met with obstacle after obstacle. We managed to push through with support from my husband and made it to 22 months before he weaned.

I had very little professional support in my breastfeeding journey so I decided to go back to school to be a Lactation Consultant. I began working on my Bachelors in Maternal and Infant Health. I knew this was where my true passion was and really felt like I found my calling. At the time I was working at a natural parenting store here in Fayetteville named Bumbledoo. I was able to see how important it was for the community here to have more lactation support.  My second son was born and I was so sure things were off to a great start. Around 3 weeks old he began spitting up much more than what is considered to be normal. He was gaining weight
quickly and our doctor brushed it off. After researching I learned that he had a dairy intolerance as well as a lip and tongue tie. I removed all dairy from my diet for over a year and he continued
breastfeeding until a little past 2.5 years.

My last baby also had a rough start with nursing. I joke she wanted to make sure I experienced all the not fun parts of breastfeeding so I could be a better IBCLC. Within the first month we had mastitis twice, lip and tongue tie that no one in Italy would release, and then recurring thrush for almost 3 months. After the thrush cleared up it was smooth sailing from there. She weaned at 23 months.

10 years after starting my IBCLC journey I finally finished my Bachelors in Maternal and Infant Health from Union Institute and University. Moving with the Army, having babies close together, and life in general caused my journey to take a while, but all the years in between have made me the IBCLC that I am today. I am passionate about early support and education as well as food intolerances while breastfeeding. Babywearing is my second love, so when I’m not working as an IBCLC you’ll find me helping and educating families about baby carriers.

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I am a certified TummyTime! Method practitioner and most recently obtained my IBCLC Masterclass certification.