Breastfeeding Coach and College Professor
Breastfeeding Coach, Dr. Rhonda Trust, holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Connecticut. She was a Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) by the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice.
She has as a diverse teaching background. She has instructed at many colleges and universities in the U.S. (Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, & California). While completing her Ph.D. she served as a research assistant for the Center for Health Communication and Marketing at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Trust's interest in breastfeeding instruction started with her training as a doula in 2003 at University of California San Diego Hospital by the Hearts and Hands program staff. A birth doula is an individual who is trained and experienced in childbirth and provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth.
To date, Dr. Trust has assisted 12 women in childbirth. Although she finds attending birth extremely miraculous and rewarding, her main focus now is breastfeeding support and research. She incorporates her years of breastfeeding research, counseling women, and personal experienes in her Coaching Services.
Her doctoral dissertation explored psychological, social, and interpersonal factors that influence women to breastfeed and is titled: Social Influences on Breastfeeding Behaviors. Examining Media, Interpersonal, Social, and Intrapersonal Variables.
She is also in the process of publishing a research study, Breastfeeding and the Media and a book regarding the social norms surrounding breastfeeding in U.S. culture.
In August 2010 she was invited to attend the United States Breastfeeding Committee's (USBC) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., where she consulted with the U.S.'s top breastfeeding researchers, clinicians, and advocates.
Dr. Trust is a former board member of the Connecticut Breastfeeding Coalition where she supported, protected, and promoted breastfeeding in the state of Connecticut.
In addition to her Ph.D. Communication Sciences from the University of Connecticut she also holds an M.A. in Communication from Florida Atlantic University and B.A.in Communication from Bridgewater State College.