This interview is with Aarani Montanari, Founder, R&R Motherhood.
For readers meeting you for the first time, how do you introduce yourself as a Founder and IBCLC, and what unique value does R&R Motherhood provide to families?
My name is Aarani Montanari, and I am an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). I have a passion for helping mothers, babies, and families on their feeding journeys and through the transition to new parenthood. This passion began when I experienced my own difficult transition to motherhood in 2021. I struggled to breastfeed my son and subsequently experienced perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. The experience was so fundamentally life-changing that it inspired me to pivot from my career in medical devices and become an IBCLC.
I know how much of a difference it can make to have support during the vulnerable transition to motherhood, and it inspired me to build my business, R&R Motherhood, a private lactation practice serving families across Arlington, Massachusetts, and surrounding communities. I have built my work around the philosophy that every family deserves access to compassionate, high-quality feeding support that fits their unique needs. I fundamentally believe that lactation support is a right, not a privilege, and it’s why I am passionate about building community support for families in the postpartum period beyond one-on-one support. R&R Motherhood hosts free infant feeding support groups in the Arlington area, offering parents a welcoming space to ask questions, connect with others, and receive guidance from an IBCLC without pressure or shame.
What pivotal experiences—from your medical device background to your own feeding journey—most directly shaped your decision to found R&R Motherhood?
I spent years in school training for a career in medical devices, certain I was on the right path. Then I became a mom, and my whole world was turned upside down. Feeding felt impossible, and my confidence was in tatters; the transition to new parenthood was nothing like I had envisioned. Finding an amazing IBCLC to help me reach my breastfeeding goals, along with a support system of new moms, saved me and helped me rediscover the joy in motherhood.
The postpartum experience is vulnerable and raw. As an IBCLC, I have the unique opportunity to help shape that experience into something positive for new mothers, just as my lactation consultant did for me. I’ve learned there can be a wide range of experiences with lactation consultants, and that each encounter has the potential to make or break a mother’s mental state during her feeding journey and overall motherhood experience. R&R Motherhood and my practice philosophy are rooted in this knowledge, and that’s why I strive to help each unique family meet their individual goals.
Building on that start, what was the single most effective step you took to land your first 10 paying clients?
Educating myself on the pros and cons of being in-network with insurance companies versus being an out-of-network provider was the most helpful step in landing my first few clients.
Having this foundational knowledge helped me better understand procedure codes, diagnosis codes, and insurance billing, which allowed me to go in-network with a few insurance companies. This quickly became an easy way to match with potential clients in my area while I was building out referral pathways for insurance and self-pay clients in my community.
Community seems central to your model; how do you design your free weekly feeding support groups to deliver real outcomes while ethically fueling word-of-mouth growth?
I have partnered with a few incredible businesses to help sustainably offer these feeding support groups:
- Juno is a wellness center designed to support women in every stage of life.
- The Lemon Grove is a trauma-informed, evidence-based doula agency.
- Beehive Moms is a space that offers new mom groups, community events, and individual therapy.
By partnering with these businesses, we are able to better serve a wider community and fuel word-of-mouth growth for all of our businesses.
Beyond live support, how do you turn clinical expertise into public-facing content that builds trust and attracts qualified clients without oversimplifying the science?
Much of my growing visibility has come from my educational presence online. Through digital education, my goal is to share approachable, evidence-based content about breastfeeding, pumping, newborn feeding behavior, and maternal mental health. I strive to design all my content to make parents feel seen while remaining grounded in science and research. The biology and physiology behind lactation are incredibly nuanced and utterly fascinating, and my background and training in molecular biology have helped me tease apart complex scientific principles and share them in more digestible ways.
Looking ahead 12–24 months, what product or service innovation are you most excited to build to expand access without diluting quality?
Prenatal education and expanding access to more communities across Massachusetts and the U.S. are goals of mine for the next 12–24 months.
As awareness around postpartum care continues to grow, my hope is that I can help shift the conversation around lactation support from something families seek only in crisis to something viewed as proactive, preventive, and foundational.
Outcomes for parents who receive prenatal lactation education in addition to postpartum support tend to be better than for those who seek support only when things go awry.