About Me
Hello, Rosemary Ragusa, IBCLC here! I'm an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a Certified Doula. I am passionate about helping babies and their parents thrive in their postpartum and breastfeeding experience. I believe that we all deserve to have connected, balanced, and dedicated support throughout this time in our lives. My deepest hope as a lactation consultant is to help families meet their feeding goals while creating a deep bond of love.
In addition to working in private practice (occasionally still partnering with Natural Latch and Bliss Lactation), I work part-time at Legacy Salmon Creek as a lactation consultant. This hospital gives me the opportunity to regularly support babies (and their parents) with additional health challenges or stays in the NICU.
Past work experiences in Portland include in-house lactation consultant at Sellwood Medical and Alma Midwifery. I supported familes with lactation and postpartum care as part of the Bridgetown Baby team. And, I learned so much supporting families in three different new parent support groups at Alma, Zenana and the Hammer & Jacks community room.
In my deeper past, I worked with new families for many years as a photographer, helping families capture and memorialize the precious and fleeting moments of childhood. My education includes a bachelors degree in fine art photography from San Francisco State and lactation specific education at Birthingway College of Midwifery.
I am currently an in-network provider with with Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna and MODA and I am always looking for ways help my clients receive insurance coverage for our appointments. If you do not have an insurance provider listed here, I will provide you with a detailed receipt for insurance reimbursement and can accept HSA/FSA cards as payment.
In my free time I enjoy spending time with my wife and son, gardening, traveling, cooking, reading, watching movies, singing, dancing and goofing around with my kid.
You can contact me at 503.313.2427 or rr@rosemaryragusa.com
Extremely kind words from some of my wonderful clients:
Rosemary was critical in our family’s breastfeeding journey, without her I don’t think we would have made it. Our little guy had an unexpected stay in the NICU, which started our family off on scary footing. In his first week or so, we just couldn’t seem to get him to latch easily and I (his mama) was in a ton of nipple pain. Frankly, I didn’t know how much longer I could breastfeed. We called up Natural Latch the first weekend he was home (I may have been a little stressed and teary) and Rosemary came to our house the next day. She spent several hours assessing him, helping me with positions and listening to my long list of questions/concerns. After his frenotomy, Rosemary came back a few times to help our family get adjusted to our son’s new free tongue. She checked that his healing was going well and helped get us latching with much more ease. Our son is 8 weeks old now and I‘m cuddled up in bed breastfeeding him with ease. Without her assessment and help, we wouldn’t be here. We’re very grateful! She treated us with such care and I felt she really tailored her recommendations to our needs/family instead of putting us in a breastfeeding box. I loved that!
-Mariana
Breastfeeding was SO MUCH more challenging for my son and I than I had ever anticipated. Rosemary helped us to navigate all the twists and turns and highs and lows with such kindness and total support. I tear up just thinking about how important she was/is in our lives! She came to support us in our home (which was great to help us with the real life set up, but also just met me in my completely sleep-deprived, new mom super stress needs). She was so responsive to my calls for help through the process, and after we really got things going (YAY!!) well she was also there to help with the planning for the transition to work and nighttime weaning process. Thank you so much Rosemary!
-Melissa
Rosemary has been a critical part of my motherhood journey. She helped me with my daughter when I was struggling with over supply and breastfeeding anxiety. She is the reason I was successful with breastfeeding for many months and helped me enjoy the bonding experience. When my son was born, Rosemary was one of the first people I called to help me navigate breastfeeding for baby number 2!
-Nicole
Rosemary was invaluable support to us when we had our first child in 2020. It meant the world to have Rosemary in my corner as a new mom. She helped me through so many feeding highs and lows with deep knowledge, kindness, and humor. Breastfeeding went from a painful tough practice to a joyful bonding experience that I was able to do for 19 months.
-Sarah
I am so incredibly thankful for Rosemary's support during the early days with my second baby. After a disappointing and very stressful experience feeding my first son, I knew I needed someone by my side to observe, support, educate and assist me on my nursing journey with baby number two. Rosemary was exactly what we needed. Kind, flexible, nurturing, patient and knowledgable, she was invaluable in the successful nursing experience we enjoyed. What a truly amazing gift the nursing experience was for my baby and me! I enthusiastically recommend Rosemary, she's the very best!
-Kate
Finally, after 2 and a half beautiful and challenging years, I am weaning my boy. And none of that journey would've been possible without Rosemary help and support. Beginning with a very difficult latch, she had all the patience to came over (many times) and help us during the first month, she is experienced, sweet, kind and has an amazing toolkit to help you get started on your breastfeeding journey. I never felt pushed to continue or to try other feeding methods. She was right there supporting my decisions and bringing her magic to help them happen.
Now that I have decided the journey is over, she was again ready to help and be that supportive, amazing consultant she is. I can't recommend her enough. Thank you, Rosemary, for all you did for Theo and I.
-Camila
Where to begin?! Last July I had my first baby and feeding did not come naturally for us. My daughter had tongue tie (later repaired) and I could not keep up with what she needed. From the moment I met Rosemary she made me feel comfortable and gave me hope that I would be able to successfully breastfeed if that was my goal. Never once did she give any indication that we couldn’t get there. And after a few weeks we were “graduating” from lactation support and I’m still able to breastfeed my daughter at 14 months. Rosemary was always available via text and phone calls if we needed her. She was supportive in every way that I needed postpartum. I cannot recommend her enough. We are TTC again and I plan to pre-book lactation appointments the minute we find out we are pregnant again!
-Amber