I became a lactation counselor because I needed one, and couldn't find one.
When my daughter was born, I thought breastfeeding would just happen. That's what every video, every well-meaning aunty, every piece of advice around me made it sound like. Instead, I sat there with a baby who wouldn't latch, a body that wouldn't cooperate, and a growing feeling that something was wrong with me for finding it this hard.
It turned out both of my children had tongue ties — something that took years, and far too many doctors, to actually identify. In the meantime, I pumped around the clock, cried over spilled milk more than once, and was told by well-meaning relatives that I “had it easy” because I could just use a machine. Nobody around me understood what I was going through, because I couldn't fully explain it myself.
I had the best mother-in-law and husband anyone could ask for. And I still felt completely alone.
After my second child, I went through postpartum depression. I didn't recognize it at first — I just knew I felt like I was failing, even on the days everyone told me I was doing great. What eventually helped wasn't more advice. It was therapy — with a counselor who, years later, would become part of the team now supporting GiggleOn families alongside me — and slowly learning that I didn't need to have it all figured out to be a good mother.
That experience changed the direction of my life. I didn't want any mother to feel as alone as I did — surrounded by support, and still unheard. So I started training: as a pregnancy wellness coach, then a doula, then — the long way, as a non-medical professional working through 14 health science courses — a certified lactation counselor. Then infant sleep, because a baby who sleeps is a mother who can rest and heal. Then early brain development and child psychology, so I could understand what my own children actually needed. Then starting solids, through the London School of Childcare Studies, where I developed what's now called the Flexi Feeding Method — used with over 3,000 babies since.
When COVID hit and formula disappeared off the shelves, I helped mothers across India re-lactate for free, one WhatsApp group at a time. That's when I understood what this work actually is — not information, but presence. Not another expert telling a mother what to do, but someone who's sat in the exact chair she's sitting in.
Today my work covers everything I once needed and couldn't find in one place: breastfeeding and tongue ties, infant sleep, early brain development, starting solids, and honest, judgment-free support for the mental load of new motherhood. That's the whole GiggleOn Method — EAT, SLEEP, GROW, HEAL — because I lived through every one of those chapters myself.
