Labor of Love’s Featured Speaker: Elizabeth Montez 

Open Arms is excited to announce our featured speaker for this year’s Labor of Love, Elizabeth Montez! 

Elizabeth (Anishinaabekwe), International Board of Lactation Certified Consultant, is a mother of two, lover of food, and a passionate protector and supporter of lactation as a traditional practice, sacred food, and an expression of Indigenous sovereignty. She is an enrolled citizen of Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, descendant of Forest County Potawatomi, and carries heritage from Mexico, Germany, and Appalachia.

“Part of my current personal journey is actively decolonizing my life, and I feel that restoring supportive community to families is a key part of that,” Elizabeth said. “Every time folks come together in collaboration and support, we create strong medicine and restore the connection and strength that our families need to thrive.” 

She strives to honor these pieces of her life and all her ancestors through her work. In her role at Open Arms Perinatal Services, she provides community-matched, relationship-based direct service to bodyfeeding parents, and mentors rising lactation professionals of color. With Elizabeth’s guidance as the Community Education Lead, Open Arms offers cost-free training to birth workers of color through our Community Specialist Pathway program which increases access to culturally responsive birth support. 

Elizabeth’s Lactation Journey 

Previously a seed-to-table chef, Elizabeth’s journey into birth and food justice began when her eldest child guided her to reconnect with her Indigenous community and traditional practices. After battling birth trauma, low milk supply, a failure to thrive diagnosis, a hidden tongue tie, triple feeding, barriers to care, and ensuing postpartum mood disruptions, Elizabeth realized that food justice starts at birth and that community care is the fertile ground families need to thrive. 

“Nursing my babies has been inextricably linked to my experience navigating life as an Anishinaabe/Latinx person in a colonized America. With my first baby, I was still trying to compartmentalize myself and my identity. Every part of me belonged in separate boxes: my motherhood, my heritage, my professional career, my personhood,” Elizabeth shared. “I felt alone and scared and like I was always failing. I didn’t realize I was being failed by so many systems that contribute to the outrageous infant and maternal mortality rates and low lactation rates among Native American birthing people.” 

It took an entire village, both medical professionals and caring community members, to support Elizabeth and her baby through their lactation journey. She recognized that she also needed her ancestors and the reclamation of her Anishinaabe traditions.  

“I needed the strength of generations before and after me to connect me to my body, to root me in this giant web of land and bodies and spirits and stars that we all belong to. And so when my second baby was born, and I felt him being handed to me in the stars by my ancestors, I knew I had found the healing I needed. And when I latched him for the first time, I could hear the songs of my ancestors and my descendants, our circle was again united.” 

You can listen to Elizabeth share more about her lactation story here and follow her work as a lactation counselor here. 

Open Arms Lactation Support Program 

If you or a community member needs support with lactation, Elizabeth, as well as other Open Arms lactation peer counselors, are here to help at our Lactation Support Program. You can also access educational recorded videos in the Open Arms virtual library.  

“I want to be there to support families on whatever journey they choose,” Elizabeth shared. “Those who choose to receive lactation support deserve excellent, compassionate, trauma-informed, culturally fluent support on their journey. I am grateful to be able to provide that through Open Arms Perinatal Services Lactation Support Program.” 

Join Elizabeth and the Open Arms Family at Labor of Love on April 3, 2025!

Today, Elizabeth and her family live in their Anishinaabe homelands, where she continues to share lactation peer support, training for birth workers, and community education. She travels across Turtle Island, speaking for audiences at conferences and educational engagements. Open Arms is thrilled that Elizabeth will join us at Labor of Love to speak about reproductive equity and justice and the importance of traditional practice in building powerful communities! 

Join us on Thursday, April 3, 2025 from 5PM – 9PM for Labor of Love at SoDo Park in Seattle to listen to Elizabeth’s powerful storytelling and celebrate birth workers! Your support will raise critical funds and awareness for Open Arms’ lactation counseling and other important programs, providing community-based perinatal care to families across the Puget Sound region. 

Learn more about Labor of Love and register today! 

• Blog