What to Expect in a Visit

HOME VISITS

I will arrive within 30 minutes of our scheduled appointment time for home visits.
Drive time depends on time of day, distance, traffic and more. Thank you for your patience with your approximate appointment time.
Home visits typically last 80-110 minutes ($225-$275), invoiced based on our time together.
Visits lasting longer than 1.5 hours will be charged by the quarter hour ($25/15min).
A 3-hour visit would be billed at $325+ (+HST. +travel), should you choose support for that long.
The home visit fee is for homes within 30km of Abaton IM.
Homes outside of this service area will be billed a travel fee, $1/km one way. Please calculate your travel fee from 1400 Cornwall Rd, Oakville.
Please discuss any financial or time constraints in advance to help prioritize our visit. We can keep to less time if needed, by only working on the most pressing challenges.
Additional questions and concerns that require added time, will add to your invoice or will require a follow up appointment.
If you are not at home for our visit time, you will be invoiced for a full visit fee ($225).
Please also see the “all visits” section below.

OFFICE VISITS

Office Visits typically start within 10-20 minutes of your scheduled time.
Office visits typically last 80-110 minutes ($180-$230), invoiced based on our time together.
All Visits lasting longer than 80-min will be charged by the quarter hour ($25/15min).
EXAMPLE: A 3-hour visit would be billed at $325+ (+HST. +travel), should you choose support for that long.

If you will be late, please text me at 647-969-0433 to let me know. We will do our best with the remaining time, understanding that cancellation fees apply to any last minute reschedule.
Bring along anything that you currently use to feed your baby that you would like help with - pillows, pumps, bottles, extra milk, etc.
Please bring a support person, if possible. They must be following any and all current COVID guidelines and expectations.
At Abaton, we have naturopaths, nutritionists, mental health supports, chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists and more to collaborate on your care.
We integrate care as needed, and I may refer you to another practitioner for concerns outside of my own scope of practice.
Please also see “all visits” section below.

vIRTUAL vISITS

Virtual Visits typically start within 10-20 minutes of your scheduled time.
Please meet me at our Zoom link sent to you if you are a private pay client.
Please have anything that you typically use to feed your baby available - pillows, pumps, bottles, extra milk, etc
It is great to have a support person available to move the camera around if our visit is for breastfeeding support.
Feel free to record our visit for you to learn from later!
Please also see “all visits” section below

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All Visits

PLEASE CANCEL ANY APPOINTMENT WITH MORE THAN 24-HRS NOTICE. Cancellation fee is 50% of your visit fee. No show fee is 100% of your visit fee. We understand that sometimes life happens! If you need to cancel with less than 24-hours notice, you will be welcome to rebook your cancelled visit after paying your cancellation fee. An invoice will be sent. We respect and honour your precious time, and we thank you for respecting ours too!
CLINIC CLOSURES DUE TO SNOW, COVID, OTHER: When the schools are closed in Halton, we are also closed. If there is a COVID concern among staff, Abaton would close to quarantine. In these cases, in-office visits will be switched to a virtual visit. Your next follow up can be scheduled for in person. Cancelling your appointment (including these virtual visits) with less than 24-hours notice subject to cancellation fees (50% of your visit fee).
MULTIPLES (twins, triplets, etc): Private clients can please expect a minimum 2-hour consultation ($275 home or $230 office).
OHIP clients with twins are allotted 60 minutes (singleton initial spot is 45min).

FOLLOW UPS: We will typically schedule a follow-up for 1-2 weeks after our initial visit (or as needed), until you have reached your breastfeeding goals. OHIP patients are covered for virtual follow-ups and may pay a fee ($60) to add more office visits. Private patients will be invoiced per visit.
CLARIFICATION TEXTS/EMAILS: You are welcome to contact me by email or using the contact us form to clarify information from our previous visit. I cannot answer questions about your care that we have not previously discussed. You may also ask for clarification on parts of our care plan, or for further explanation to share with your doctor, manual therapist, etc. regarding our plan.
NEW CONCERNS/QUESTIONS: We can schedule an appointment or phone consultation if there is a new concern, or a new need such as a change of focus from your original concern to Sleep, Babywearing, or Parent coaching. If you require more than clarity on your previous care plan, I will ask that you book another visit, or I will offer an email response ($10-20), phone/video call ($2/min) or another service for this information. OHIP clients can book virtual follow-ups as needed regarding their initial concern. For new concerns, OHIP clients should get a new referral and fill new intake forms to continue care.

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WHAT TO EXPECT IN OUR ONE-ON-ONE VISIT TOGETHER:

All visits for feeding, sleep or parenting support flow in a similar way.

Initial visits are longer than follow-ups, as we need to gather a history to help you. We will discuss you and your baby’s history to understand where we are starting from, and to help us understand your unique goals. We will try to discover what may have contributed to your breastfeeding concern.

Ideally, I will get to see a part of a feed or the behaviour in question, to assess causes for your concern related to latch, milk flow and other. Whether it is a feeding challenge, sleep challenge, or a parenting concern we will try to pinpoint underlying causes to address first.

Our visit may include an oral exam, breast exam, watching a feeding, watching baby eat solids, or collecting information on feeding and sleep schedules.

Our care plan will always take into consideration your goals & our functional/holistic assessment, to create easy and targeted steps to success! Please be sure that you are sharing your honest goals (and not what you think someone wants to hear). No judgement here! I only want to help you with your own feeding, parenting and sleep goals that you present to me. If your goals are out of scope for my practice, I will happily refer you to a better-suited colleague.

As an IBCLC, it is my job to try to take your shared goals, and help you reach them. I cannot promise to fix your problem but can ensure you that through assessment and observation, will be able to give you an idea of what is at the root of the issue and provide steps for you to take to try to resolve it.

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COMMUNICATION BETWEEN VISITS

I am so grateful for being trusted with your care!! I want to make sure that expectations are clear to avoid any miscommunications. All of your questions and concerns can be addressed in a booked appointment. Please keep a list of questions to bring, so you don’t forget them!

PRIVATE: You can book 15- or 30- minute virtual calls outside of your full visits, if you just need a quick chat.
These are a private fee, please see FEEDING for more info.

Please do not leave me voicemails, as I check them very irregularly. Texts get buried and arent reliable for either of us. Please email me with concerns instead. Please continue to tag me on social media if you think I can help someone in a thread! However, please do not send me direct social media messages. It would never be my intention to not answer you! Please simply resend your EMAIL if you haven’t heard back. And PLEASE check junk mail if you send me a message via the contact us form on this website.

I respond to emails in the evening, on workdays, around 10pm or so. Sometimes sooner if I happen to be online. Thanks for your patience.

If you have an emergency, please call Telehealth, 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency department. I cannot be relied on as an emergency service.