Today we’d like to introduce you to Sunayana Weber.
Hi Sunayana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My own rough start with breastfeeding my older son led me to learn as much about lactation as I could. I helped my friends, and they started giving my number out to their friends – I knew I had to explore my newfound passion. It’s More Than Milk began as a side hustle and quickly turned into my calling. Eventually it made the shift to my career. I’ve been supporting families with their lactation journeys since 2012 and became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2017.
After passing my board exam, I gained a lot of experience working with Austin families in an outpatient setting. I earned a reputation for looking at the family unit as a whole in order to help them reach their lactation and infant feeding goals. In August 2022, I made the leap to a small business owner, launched It’s More Than Milk as my own private practice, and haven’t looked back.
It’s More Than Milk has grown rapidly in the last four years. We now have a team of 4 IBCLCs and an IBCLC candidate (she will be taking the board exam in the fall). Last year, we opened our second office location in Round Rock and expanded our South Austin office.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road to get to this point. I’ve struggled with the business end of things. It has taken a lot of time to learn the back end of running a small business. When I initially launched It’s More Than Milk, it was a one woman show, and I did not have to worry about documentation of policies and procedures, clinical protocols, or an SOP. Once I started expanding my team, I had to get these things out of my head and written down. It’s something I’m still working on. Imposter syndrome sometimes rears its ugly head, especially with higher acuity cases, but thankfully my team is available to talk through the situation.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
It’s More Than Milk offers integrative lactation care. Integrative lactation care is a holistic and collaborative approach to infant feeding support that considers the client’s entire well-being, including physical, environmental, and lifestyle factors. It works to integrate various appropriate therapeutic approaches and professional disciplines to support the family’s feeding goals. Integrative lactation care emphasizes the client-practitioner relationship and relies on evidence-based practices from all appropriate therapies and professions.
It extends beyond the physical act of feeding to address the root causes of challenges.
It’s More Than Milk is well known for offering personalized, non-judgmental support for all feeding choices, whether that’s exclusive breast or chest feeding, pumping, formula feeding, or some combination of all of them. We’re committed to informing, supporting, and empowering families in their lactation and infant feeding journeys.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Starting my own lactation practice has been my goal since 2012, and I wouldn’t be here without my OG friends who’ve been cheering me on the whole time. They’ve been at nearly every step of the journey, and giving me pep talks when I”m feeling low. My mentors also helped refine what kind of lactation consultant I wanted to be: a warm, approachable, compassionate one. I’m also very grateful for my husband who has been my biggest cheerleader since the beginning. He’s done everything from assembling furniture to taking photos at events. He has been the primary parent while I completed my clinical hours and made sure our kids are well taken care of while I was working towards this goal.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://itsmorethanmilk.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/itsmorethanmilk
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/itsmorethanmilk
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunayanaweber/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/its-more-than-milk-lactation-services-austin-3
- Other: https://g.page/r/CUlR-nMsPLUeEAI/review (google reviews)
