Black Breastfeeding Week 2024: Dominique Bellegarde
“I believe in encouraging, empowering women, children, and families, especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Anyone I'm introduced to, I'm always making sure that they know about their body and the importance of who they are. That’s my calling, that’s how I serve families.”
Dominique Bellegarde is a woman of the community, a dedicated advocate, author of Mom, I Want Milk!, a student midwife, and a community leader known for her passion in supporting families along their motherhood journey.
With a strong commitment to education, empowerment, and shared resources, Dominique’s mission is to instill confidence in families as they embrace their unique path to parenthood. Armed with a BA degree in Human Services with a range of certifications including CLC, CLE, Doula, Birth Assistant, Consultant, Community Health Worker, presenter on the topic of Maternal health and infant mortality to the Tufts-CHW COHERE Program, and Lactation Specialist, and a background spanning 16 years in lactation support and 3 years of midwifery apprenticing, Dominique stands as a beacon of knowledge and support.
As the founder of D. Legacy Pacesetters, established in 2018, she empowers women and families by assisting them in forming birth teams that prioritize maternal and infant health. She is also an influential member of various initiatives that champion maternal and infant well-being, including CAN, Vital Village, BACE, and more. With a steadfast belief in individual journeys, Dominique reminds families that they set the pace, while she guides and supports them along the way. Her calling is to serve as she continues to follow her path.
This blog is made possible by a sponsorship from Sage Therapeutics, Inc. and Biogen Inc. All content on this page has been curated by the Mass. PPD Fund without input from Sage Therapeutics, Inc. or Biogen Inc.
August 2024 | Interviewed and edited by Jessie Colbert, Executive Director, Mass. PPD Fund
Black Breastfeeding Week was created in 2014 by a group of Black maternal and infant health advocates to amplify, promote, and support Black breastfeeding, with the goal of highlighting disparities and reducing breastfeeding barriers for moms of Color. To help celebrate, the Mass. PPD Fund is excited to share this conversation with Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC), Boston Breastfeeding Coalition leader, Community Health Worker, entrepreneur, author, and all-around Woman of the Community, Dominique Bellegarde.
We talked about the many different ways she and the Coalition support breastfeeding, how breastfeeding impacts mental health, and the importance of continually showing up and being a familiar face in the community. She highlighted how breastfeeding support is about so much more than just breastfeeding – it’s also about encouragement, empowerment, and building community.
Happy Black Breastfeeding Week! I’d love to start by hearing more about your journey, your business, and your career as a breastfeeding counselor, entrepreneur, author, and more. You wear a lot of hats!
My name is Dominique Bellegarde. I am the founder of D. Legacy Pace Setters: It's your journey, let's set the pace! I believe in encouraging, empowering women, children, and families, especially during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and of course, preconception health. Anyone I'm introduced to, I'm always making sure that they know about their body and the importance of who they are. That’s my calling, that’s how I serve families.
I'm a mom of four children. I was able to breastfeed each child a lot longer, the more educated I got. My 18-year-old, I breastfed him for 18 months. My 12-year-old, my 14-year-old, I was able to breastfeed for 21 months. And then my eight-year-old, I was able to breastfeed for 27 months. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they [recommend] two years. The World Health Organization, two years and more. And you see the difference in each child, as you’re learning more about the benefits of breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding was introduced to me through exposure. I was a nanny to a family who had children before, she adopted them, and then she had two of her own. I got to experience seeing her body transformed from being pregnant, being comfortable seeing the parts of a woman that made her amazing to her baby, able to nourish her baby. I thought it was fascinating! I became pregnant a few years later, and I was determined to breastfeed.
I became a WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor for 14 years after I had my son, he latched right away. The nutritionist was like, Dominique, you'd be great for this! as they're launching this new program. And it has been successful ever since.
Everything just kept continuing from there. With WIC I became a CLC [Certified Lactation Counselor], and then with Vital Village I became a Certified Lactation Educator. Like, everything was a steppingstone that helped me get where I am, as an entrepreneur in private practice. I call myself Woman of the Community. I am a woman, a Brown woman. My mom wasn't able to breastfeed, but I believe I was the one who received colostrum since she said, I put you on my breast. She felt there was no milk, so artificial breastmilk was introduced. I knew what my calling was, with my Bachelor's in Human Services: to serve humans! And here we are.
Can you give an example of the sort of breastfeeding challenges you might work on with one of your clients? It would be great to know what that looks like.
I've definitely helped many moms on different levels with different challenges. One that stood out, she was already diagnosed with depression. At that time, I was a Boston Healthy Start Initiative Case Manager, working with families who self-identify as Black, from pregnancy till about two years old. So I’m encouraging her, giving her education on breastfeeding, and reminding her that when she breastfeeds, it's going to help decrease her postpartum depression. And she did breastfeed. I checked in on her very much, I was able to just really cheer her on.
She breastfed for 12 weeks, and then I think we missed an appointment. She didn’t sound like herself anymore, and in my head I was like, Did you stop breastfeeding? And I asked her, and she’s like, I stopped. This [mood change] happened immediately. I was like, Oh my! This is real. You hear the studies, but you're not expecting to feel or see a shift. I was seeing it firsthand. That was my hugest takeaway on promoting breastfeeding even more.
She ended up having another child, and she did breastfeed the other child, too. Many years later, she found my email and she said, Thank you for helping me. Because you shared this information with me, you've helped me on so many different levels. It’s so important to be present with our families, we don't know what they're going through.
Absolutely, thank you for sharing. And you’ve also written a book about breastfeeding, right?
My book is called Mom, I Want Milk! It’s a dialogue of a toddler and a mom. Her name's Josephine, and she's asking questions to her mom. She's like, Mom, I want milk. And the mom's like, Why do you want milk? And then the baby explains why milk is good for her and why she should receive it, so it's got a persuasive argument. I want this message out there.
[Through the book] you're being encouraged as a mom: choosing to be pregnant, choosing to birth. You know that you can actually breastfeed right away [after birth] because your body's ready? There's a dad saying, Can you breastfeed anywhere? It's encouraging the whole family, because many community members don't know what to do. Through the dialogue, they'll start to understand and incorporate it as their own. Like, if mom's done breastfeeding, I know I can burp baby, I can read to baby, I can spend time. I have a poem that the dad reads, to show [the nursing mom], this is why I love you, you're doing something great for my child. She's pouring into a little community member!
It’s not just a breastfeeding book, it's a book about encouragement, and it brings community together. So if you're in the campaign to make sure that families are aware of breastfeeding, aware of community support, aware of fathers’ support, aware of empowering moms to do this hard, special work, get the book and distribute it! It’s time to give the most important gem that a family needs: empowerment through a book. The images are beautiful, they're engaging, and the message is powerful without forcing anything, but celebrating the decision to breastfeed.
What’s so amazing, another vision of creating a book already came to me. It’s called What is in My Purse? It focuses on perinatal-mental health, and addresses a few emotions through a journal entry book form for families to enjoy reading the poems to support their journey as they write. Not everyone is used to writing, but the book will prompt you to want ‘what is healthy for me to do.’ As humans, we carry many obstacles and temporary challenges in our lives. We’ve got to use these tools so no one feels like they’re alone. I’m so excited about how these two books work together. Breastfeeding and mental health, they are good friends!
Yes, I love it! The Boston Breastfeeding Coalition has a lot of great events coming up for Black Breastfeeding Week. Can you share more about them and how people can get involved?
Every year as part of D. Legacy Pacesetters’ programming, presenting Family Paint Moments to many families has added value to an evening or an afternoon of painting. It's another way to spend time with your family. This is the mental health part that people don't realize: taking that brush, taking the pen — you're journaling, but on a canvas! The oxytocin level that you get; it's joy, it's relaxation, and the children feel good. Every year more people get involved. Some people didn't realize they were very creative!
And Springfield breastfeeding celebrations are taking place August 26. Springfield has been bringing so many people, so much awareness on so many different levels. And then you have the WIC workshop taking place in Attleboro. And we have COPHI’s (Boston Healthy Families Community-Based Perinatal Health Initiative – Doula Project) Nurturing Bonds: Black Breastfeeding & the Role of the Doula, so families are aware that you don't have to do this alone.
On August 31, we’ve got the Black Breastfeeding Week Celebration at the Walker Playground from 12 to 5. I’ll give you a sneak peek: we’re going to have painting, an art gallery, health and wellness, live music, a photo booth, breastfeeding workshops, refreshments. There’s going to be some guest speakers, and then we also have dance, fitness, and fun. We’re supporting our bodies, our mental and physical health, as we're also bringing awareness.
We have Nurturing Narratives: Sharing Our Stories, Strengthening Our Bonds on August 26 at Schoolmaster Hill from 1:30 to 4 with Tiffany Magnum. So, another form of mental health support and celebration. Another thing that's happening is that Little Cocoa Bean, they're having tea, BHSI (Boston Healthy Start Initiative) is supporting that. Go have tea for a moment! Go celebrate being around other breastfeeding moms — you never know, they might become a friend, they might be that voice that helps you over your challenges.
Of course, the Boston Breastfeeding Coalition is doing great work year-round. Is there anything else you’d like to share about the Coalition?
What I like about the Boston Breastfeeding Coalition is that it’s not just about breastfeeding. It's about encouraging, empowering our families. We have community-based lactation specialists who are equipped with many different skills and resources. We table at different locations, so families are aware that we're not strangers — we're part of the community. We have Tiffany, she’s able to bring a form of mental health healing, she’s introduced her practice of yoga to families. We've had families that all come together to cook together. These are tools that you need to uplift someone — being able to spotlight their skills so that they [feel their] worth. Anyone who shows up at Baby Cafe, they're able to give back as breastfeeding advocates, and everyone branches out to help the next person.