About 
Sara Copeland 

Sara has worked in an outpatient pediatric office here in Gainesville since 2016 as a pediatric nurse practitioner and lactation consultant, but was feeling burnt out and frustrated by time constraints and rigid scheduling in the conventional medical office. Early in 2023, a longtime dream of Sara's was finally realized and she launched BORN to Connect, a clinic to serve all the breastfeeding and lactation needs of families without the rigid structure of a traditional medical office setting.  

She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Florida.  Sara has worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, taught prenatal Newborn Care Classes, and worked as a hospital-based Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and in general pediatrics as a primary care nurse practitioner.  Sara has a passion for helping mothers (and whole families) and infants learn about breastfeeding and work through lactation challenges together.  She loves to teach new, and not so new, parents about their babies and feeding. 

Sara has been practicing lactation since 2014. Prior to that she was an RN in a level 2 NICU, where her favorite patients were the “feeder-growers,” meaning that the baby and the families needed a lot of time and education to learn how to feed and mature.  

Shortly after receiving the IBCLC certification, Sara had her second child and was humbled by the difficulties with breastfeeding that she did not expect, given her experience as a lactation supporter and as a NICU nurse. Her second child inspired her to learn as much as possible about oral ties (tongue and lip ties) and she plans to continue to be a lifelong learner in this arena.   

Sara enjoys guiding families in healthy living practices and is also very passionate about patient-centered care and ensuring that the patient and family are involved in the health care process.

Outside of work, Sara enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, being outdoors as much as possible, running, gardening, and DIY-ing as much as possible, including making home and self-care products, and experimenting/ inventing healthy allergy-friendly recipes from scratch.