Optimal Nurturing Team

At Optimal Nurturing, you'll receive care from a collaborative team of experienced professionals who are passionate about helping families meet their feeding goals. While each provider has unique areas of expertise, we work closely together to ensure every family receives thoughtful, individualized care backed by the experience of our entire team.

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Heather Hutton, BSN, RN, IBCLC

Lactation Consultant & Owner

Heather takes a comprehensive, root-cause approach to feeding challenges, combining clinical expertise with a trauma-informed, whole-family perspective and she is best suited for:

  • Complex feeding challenges

  • Persistent pain or latching difficulties

  • Oral ties, persistent low milk production, unresolved issues, or multiple issues that complicate feeding

  • Families needing deeper, root-cause evaluation

Jessica Santore RN, IBCLC

Lactation Consultant

Jessica is an experienced lactation consultant with additional experience as a nurse in labor & delivery and NICU. She brings a calming an supportive aura to lactation care and she is best suited for:

  • Early and ongoing feeding support

  • Preanatals, latching, & positioning

  • Nipple pain & damage

  • Oral ties, preparing for release, and after-care support

  • NICU graduates

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Jess Stiltner, MBA

Practice Operations Manager

Jess is the Practice Operations Manager at Optimal Nurturing. She brings years of experience in healthcare operations, leadership, and social media marketing and holds both a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science from East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Her areas of focus include:

  • Practice operations

  • Team leadership and support

  • Client experience

  • Community outreach and education

  • Continuous improvement of our practice

If you have questions or need assistance, Jess is always happy to help or connect you with the right member of our team.

What People Are Saying About Optimal Nurturing Lactation

  • Above & Beyond

    “Most other providers I have experienced spend 10 minutes or less with me/baby. They were not thorough and for the most part didn’t seem to care about previous breastfeeding struggles. Heather went above and beyond to know my history along with current baby. She spent hours and hours with us, giving us a completely individualized plan that I’m confident led to our current success in breastfeeding.”

  • Undivided Attention

    “With my first baby, my lactation consultant in the hospital had many patients and could not be as attentive. Also, I was a special case, and I'm glad I could get the undivided attention I needed [with Optimal Nurturing Lactation].”

  • Support Beyond Breastfeeding

    “You played a huge role in not only my breastfeeding journey but my mental health post baby. Thank you will never be enough!”

  • Responsive After Appointments

    “I appreciate that Heather took the time to answer any questions that I had outside of our appointments. Her response time and communication was the best I have ever received from a medical provider.”

  • Newborn & Self Care Support

    “Not only did she help me with all things nursing/pumping but she went above and beyond and gave us advice on how to help with my daughter’s congestion, how to help her cope better with bath time, and she even touched base with me on my own postpartum mental health and referred me to a counselor who could help me with my postpartum anxiety.”

  • Comfortable & Uncomplicated

    “Heather was wonderful! Easy to talk to and has a great way of explaining things! I was worried it would be “weird” since it’s my first time breastfeeding, but she made it so comfortable and uncomplicated things! We wouldn’t have made it this far without her!”

  • Knowledge & Expertise

    “Heather is so patient, supportive, and comforting. I’m happy to say that my baby and I overcame every single feeding problem we were experiencing. We would not have been able to do that without Heather! Her knowledge and expertise really shows.”

  • Holistic, Dyad-Centered Care

    “Her presence was easy and calming during quite a stressful time of breastfeeding challenges. She is not only knowledgeable and up to date with best practice, but she also looks at the whole picture and the dyad of baby and mom.”

  • Balancing Professional With Personal

    “I loved working with Heather. She is super professional, but felt like a really loving and fun big sister.”

  • Mother-Baby Nurse

    “Since Heather has an extensive medical background as a RN, Heather was able to offer us aid not only in breast feeding, but tips for changing diapers, soothing a newborn infant, nighttime feedings, etc.”

  • Empowering Parents' Decisions

    “She covered all my concerns and made me feel at peace and confident in what I was doing throughout our breastfeeding journey.”

We have over 70 five-star reviews on Google. read them all here!