2022 Speakers & Topics
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued the first revision of the 1989 WHO/UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. Revisions are subtle, yet meaningful for implementation. A major change made by WHO is subdividing the Ten Steps into 1) critical management procedures, and 2) key clinical practices. Lessons have been learned on how the change has shifted the focus from health care staff to parents and families and shifted the responsibility for some elements of care from hospitals to the community. In this presentation, we will compare 1989 and 2018 Ten Steps, and explore its cost and benefit implications for diverse stakeholders, such as healthcare professionals, parents, family and government.
Dr. Andrew Dorough is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology. He then earned his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis, Missouri. He later earned a post-graduate certification from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (CACCP). He is qualified to deliver highly skilled and safe treatment to pregnant and postnatal patients and to neonatal and infant patients. Dr. Dorough enjoys providing collaborative care. He currently works in a family medicine clinic which boasts a breastfeeding medicine physician IBCLC, along with other IBCLCs, two nurse practitioners and a physician assistant. He assesses and treats infants with various forms of structural issues, including but not limited to cranial bone deformation (plagiocephaly), torticollis, and tongue and neck dysfunction, as related to feeding difficulties and infant well-being.
Evidence suggests that trauma during pregnancy, labor and delivery may be a contributing factor to soft tissue and joint restrictions that affect an infant’s inability to latch and effectively transfer milk. How can lactation and medical experts identify the signs of dysfunctional movements that contribute to feeding dysfunction? To what extent can chiropractic care, within a collaborative model, safely and effectively help to correct feeding dysfunction? This session will enable attendees to elicit a more careful history, and to notice often overlooked signs that cannot be resolved with better breastfeeding management, but rather, indicate referral to a pediatric chiropractor.
Anya Kleinman is a general pediatrician who works at Akron Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio caring for the range of patients from birth to late adolescence. She uses her IBCLC expertise to counsel new parents and promote breastfeeding in the ER.
IBCLCs, often with limited education in newborn medicine and obstetrics, care for the infant-parent dyad within the context of a complex healthcare system staffed by providers with variant training in breastfeeding medicine. This is an interaction filled with knowledge gaps and fraught with the possibility for misunderstanding and dangerously missed diagnoses. I plan to combine my training in general pediatrics and my clinical experience as a pediatric ER physician with my IBCLC training. I will teach conference participants about medical emergencies when caring for the breastfeeding newborn and the post-partum parent so that they can recognize clinical scenarios presenting to their care that require immediate medical assessment. The presentation will focus on high-yield topics in newborn medicine and postpartum obstetrics to deepen the IBCLCs recognition and ensure appropriate ongoing care for common and life-threatening complaints. It will include a discussion of neonatal jaundice, neonatal fever, severe weight loss, pyloric stenosis, congenital birth defects and genetic disorders; the lecture will also address postpartum depression, post-operative infections, and postpartum preeclampsia. Armed with this understanding of clinical red flags, IBCLCs will be empowered to better care for their breastfeeding patients, while also understanding when immediate medical assessment is imperative.
Bianca Balassiano has been working with families in private practice since 2008 as an IBCLC and perinatal psychologist/maternal-child health specialist. As a natural consequence of her professional background, has supported breastfeeding families into achieving individual goals while maintaining mental health and stimulating a holistic look towards the subject. Since 2014 is also working as an educator for healthcare professionals in one of the most recognized breastfeeding courses in Brazil, currently offering virtual classes and all over the country. Lives with husband and two children in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2020, she launched her first book aimed at families with the title "Gradual Weaning: How to Bring Your Breastfeeding Story to a Happy End".
With the increase in the prevalence of obesity internationally, the world is turning its attention to effective forms of treatment. As a result, surgical techniques are increasingly being used in an attempt to ensure weight loss, reduction of comorbidities and hormonal balance in young patients of childbearing age. However, as a restrictive and disabsortive surgery, its impacts on pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum outcomes have been increasingly studied closely. Scientific studies provide substantial data on lactation after bariatric surgery, with common outcomes such as greater use of supplementation, less exclusive breastfeeding, shorter duration of breastfeeding and a higher rate of nutritional and vitamin deficiencies. Less studied, however, are its emotional effects on the lactating person, as well as the impacts on body recognition and the difficulties in dealing with the new morphological breast/chest configuration. Therefore, it is essential that the health professional who is dedicated to working in support of breastfeeding is specially trained to support families for the proper management of breastfeeding in the presence of substantially increased risks, as demonstrated after bariatric surgery.
Christine Staricka is a Registered, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and trained childbirth educator. As the host of The Lactation Training Lab Podcast, her current role focuses on training and coaching current and aspiring lactation care providers. Christine created and developed The First 100 Hours© concept, an early lactation framework designed to support lactation care providers with the knowledge and mindset they need to help families optimize early lactation. Christine worked as a hospital-based IBCLC for 10 years and has over 20 years experience providing clinical lactation care and support. She provides clinical lactation care to families at Baby Café Bakersfield and serves as its Director. Christine recently completed 6 years of service on the Board of the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA.) She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Phoenix. She has been married for 27 years, lives in California, and is the proud mother of 3 amazing daughters.
The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (WHO Code) exists to protect health during a vulnerable period of life. In the course of practicing health care in the service of families with babies and young children, health care workers of all disciplines will encounter situations which should be guided by the WHO Code. It is in the interest of families and health for all health workers to be aware of the WHO Code and what it requires, as well as to be able to evaluate a situation where a commercial entity is interacting with the public regarding infant and young child feeding. Using a rubric of WHO Code guidance, the participant will practice evaluating real-world case studies and determining whether or not they are in compliance with the WHO Code.
Dipti Shah is a Mother Support Group Leader - Lactation Counsellor since 1998 & Lactation Consultant since 2010. She was trained by BPNI Maharashtra Faculty & has been providing Lactation Counselling services in multiple Institutional Hospitals & small maternity homes in Mumbai for over 2 decades. She has wide experience in community advocacy & Individual Counselling in indoor, OPD, home and online settings. She is senior trainer for BPNI Maharashtra & participated as faculty in over 100 workshops in Seven States of India & for 5 batches of ’96 hrs of Lactation Specific Education’ for IBLCE preparation (2010-2021). She mentored many Lactation counsellors and consultants. She is a BFHI Assessor since 2001 & has trained two groups of ‘Traditional Massage Women’ in basics of infant feeding and childcare. She has extensively contributed to multiple training modules, presentations & videos for BPNI Maharashtra & Maharashtra Government & UNICEF. She is also office coordinator of BPNI Maharashtra since 2004. She participated in Expanded Global Breastfeeding Partners Meeting (GBPM) of WABA at Penang, Malaysia in 2010. She was felicitated with ‘Dr N.B. Kumta Award’ in 2016. She exclusively breastfed her son for 6 months and continued well into 2nd year.
Ruth Patterson is Cloud Nine's P I O N E E R & most sought Lactation Specialist with 32 years of rich experience. Ruth is currently practicing at Jayanagar C9, Bangalore-India and a visiting Lactation Consultant with 8 other Cloud Nine branches locally, while als heading the 22 Pan India Cloud Nine Hospitals as the Manager Lactation. Ruth's primary role is to ensure C9 nurses complete level 1 and level 2 LSTP course (Lactation Skilled Training Program). Ruth is acclaimed for the use of Dynamic Taping (only available at Jayanagar C9) that arrests/prevents breast surgery/abscess. This Dynamic Taping practice, alongside, a Gynecologist, Pediatrician and Physiotherapist at Cloud Nine, is now under patent stage.
Ruth's 30+ years of rich experience includes maternity, allied health and nursing care, both in rural and urban sector in India & Abroad. With Exclusive 17 years of experience in Lactation services, Ruth has acquired immense practical knowledge in the last decade to identify most critical disorders of mother and babies during breastfeeding stage. Ruth is acclaimed to have expertise in a lesser-known art of re-lactation and induced lactation.
Ruth is a well sought out person for patient hearing and provides her expert comments in News columns/Media and also delivers guest lectures globally.
Lactation Consultants/Counselors are the emerging professionals in developing countries like India. Breastfeeding practices are still heavily influenced by traditions and often left to the expertise of elders in the family. Many health care providers are unaware of the emergence of Human Lactation Management as a science & the availability of experts in their vicinity. Most maternity services do not have a dedicated Lactation Consultants/Counselors. Even where such facility exists, there is a lack of management strategies to improve & sustain breastfeeding rates & outcomes. This presentation will help Lactation Consultants & Counselors learn how to convey to management that there is a need for a Lactation Consultant/Counselor to set up the administrative strategy and protocols for ensuring things like early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, prevention and prompt treatments of breastfeeding problems, post discharge follow-up and care, monitoring of breastfeeding indicators, maintaining BFHI status and regular and ongoing training of staff to build adequate knowledge and skills.
Dr. Dyah Febriyanti, MD, IBCLC, FABM is a medical doctor and lactation consultant/ breastfeeding counselor, and a mother living in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has been working in hospitals since she graduated in 2012. She was facing many struggles to succeed breastfeeding her daughter for two years. She has been an IBCLC since 2017. She works with breastfeeding dyads in a lactation team consisting of all lady doctors in outpatient and inpatient care units. Concerning breastfeeding and nutrition in early life, she has published a semi-cookbook about complementary foods for breastfed babies and cooking videos to educate and help mothers feed their babies. She also has been working on scientific writing. She is a member of International Lactation Consultant Association, and a trainer of the Indonesian Society of Perinatology. She also is a Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (FABM).
Breastfeeding for the first two years has physical and psychological benefits. The baby should be well-fed through exclusive human milk for the first 6 months, then given complementary feeding (or 'start solids') while continuing to breastfeed until weaning after two years. Inadequate complementary feeding may lead to nutritional as well as developmental problems. Due to a lot of misinformation many parents are unaware of current recommendations on starting solids, and it is often a time when poor understanding of the baby’s nutritional needs leads to unnecessary concern about intake of solids and subsequent weaning. Education is crucial during this period, and it is important for health care providers to be up to date on the latest best practice guidelines and skilled at counselling parents to avoid unnecessary weaning and nutritional deficits.
Emma became a breastfeeding counsellor with the UK's Association of Breastfeeding Mothers in 2007. She has been an IBCLC since 2011 and volunteers at two groups in Haringey in North London. She is on the board of trustees for the Human Milk Foundation - a charity committed to improving access to donor human milk. She has written several books including ‘You’ve Got it in You: a positive guide to breastfeeding’ for new parents and ‘The Breast Book’ for pre-teens and teens. Her book, “Breastfeeding past the first six months and beyond: a guide for professionals and parents” was published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers and followed in February 2024 by ‘Supporting the transition from breastfeeding: a guide to weaning for professionals, supporters and parents’. She devotes a portion of her private practice to supporting parents who continue to breastfeed beyond infancy, including during the weaning process. In 2022, Emma received the Lactation Consultations of Great Britain award for outstanding contribution to breastfeeding. You can find her at www.emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com and on instagram as @emmapickettibclc. Her podcast "Makes Milk with Emma Pickett" launched in September 2023.
This session focuses on supporting parents who are breastfeeding/chestfeeding beyond 12 months. Many of us live in countries where breastfeeding beyond 12 months is not the norm. When it does happen, it may not happen openly. Parents are often feeling increasingly isolated and may be dealing with lack of support from family and friends. There can be further challenges such as new issues with positioning and attachment, conversations with employers and health professionals, dealing with family break-up and thinking about new pregnancies. Parents continuing to feed older children may not always feel able to reach out to local breastfeeding support services that often focus on the newborn period. You will be encouraged to reflect on your personal approach to supporting feeding older children and whether you have any unconscious or conscious bias that may affect your work. The session will give you confidence to discuss the value of continuing to breastfeed with families and colleagues and be able to offer a variety of support.
Dr Evelyne N. Ruf is a family physician (from France, 1992), and IBCLC (since 1993). Working in Sharjah, UAE, since 1998, she is presently the head of the Lactation clinic in a Ministry of Health facility. In 2001, she founded the first Lactation Clinic in the UAE at Sharjah MCH Center, with the support of volunteers from Breastfeeding Friends (BFF), the first mother-to-mother support group which she co-founded in 1999. Her workplace later became the first Baby-Friendly Health Center (2011), and the first recipient of the IBCLC Care Award for the community (2015). She has also been involved in the preparation of the Sharjah Baby-Friendly Emirate Campaign, a multi-sectorial initiative (2012-2015), for which she has been the Head of the Scientific Committee, as well as the main mentor for the practice in the Lactation clinic. She is a member of ILCA and ABM, and presented posters at several international/regional conferences.
“Hello, the Lactation clinic? Here is a nurse from Primary Health Care; we have a mother engorged in the hotel, can you help her?”…
After taking some time to understand this strange call, we embarked on a totally unexpected journey: trying to support 25 Covid-19 positive asymptomatic mothers, most of them isolated without their newborn. This happened between April and June 2020, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, as a consequence of the initial USCDC recommendations.
This presentation describes the intense practical, clinical and emotional support needed by these mothers to cope with their traumatizing situation, but also the silver lining of their resilience, the amazing power of peer support, and a new cooperation between health care providers from different facilities, and with lay supporters.
Further insight is provided by some research done in the UAE: an observational study from a hospital who has followed WHO recommendations, and a cross-sectional study among mothers from the community.
Lessons should be taken from the past, to prevent the repetition of decisions based on a distorted balance of benefit/risk, affecting so many families and their care providers globally.
Gretchen Becker Crabb is an Occupational Therapist, Licensed Professional Counselor, and Endorsed Infant Mental Health Therapist. She is also a Certified Lactation Counselor, La Leche League Leader, and Brazleton Newborn Observation (NBO) trainer.
Gretchen’s passion is rooted in fostering lifelong relationships and connection through co-regulation in pregnancy and beyond. Her unique approach to lactation support and therapy is rooted in culturally attuned sensory, somatic, and trauma-informed mental health techniques.
Gretchen owns and operates a private practice in Madison, Wisconsin. For 21 years, she has provided developmental, trauma, feeding, and attachment support for tiny humans and their caregivers in birth to three, preschool, private practice, and peer group settings. Gretchen is an international speaker, reflective supervisor, and infant mental health consultant. In these roles, she offers compassionate, experiential, and reflective holding spaces for professionals. She is a proud United States Air Force spouse and mother of three boys.
The body’s ability to process sensory information provides the basis of all function. Interestingly, our most foundational sense of movement is often overlooked as a component of lactation support. In this presentation, we will tie together research in neurology, primitive reflexes, mental health, and sensory integration to demonstrate the significant impact vestibular function has on the quality of lactation and infant/caregiver relationships. Participants will enhance their observational skills and explore ways to provide support for body/breastfeeding dyads using a vestibular processing perspective. Experiential activities will offer participants the opportunity to play with movement and reflect on personal experiences to enhance self-awareness and compassionate care.
Indira Lopez-Bassols has dedicated the past 17 years to the fields of birth and breastfeeding. Over the last 5 consecutive years, she has assumed the leadership role at the Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic within the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, focusing on complex breastfeeding dyads. Her efforts have led the clinic to receive the prestigious 2023 IBCLC Community-Based Care Award, and they have achieved UNICEF BFI Stage 3 accreditation.
For the past 13 years, Indira has been instrumental in training and mentoring future IBCLCs from around the world through her Breastfeeding London Course. This comprehensive course is delivered through various formats, including in-person, online, and hybrid modes. Serving as the Director of the Centre for Breastfeeding Education and Research, Indira has contributed to leading international peer-reviewed breastfeeding journals and currently holds the position of a peer-reviewer.
In her current academic pursuit, Indira is engaged in Doctoral research in Nursing and Midwifery within the Mother and Infant Research Unit at the University of Dundee. Her research focus centers on breastfeeding education for healthcare providers and the intricate interplay between learning needs and motivation.
In her voluntary capacity, Indira has dedicated 15 years of service as a La Leche League (LLL) leader, further emphasizing her commitment to supporting breastfeeding mothers and families.
Craniofacial anomalies (CFA) are a common anatomical malformation that affects the craniofacial region; they present either as cleft lip (CL), cleft palate (CP), or cleft lip and palate (CL/P) with varying degrees of severity. The incidence depends on the population’s ethnicity and geography. Infants with CFA can experience feeding difficulties either at the breast or at the bottle because they can have issues with their suck, swallow, breathe sequence and milk transfer.
This presentation will provide an overview of the anatomy of CFA. Techniques on how best to support families with CFA infants who wish either to breastfeed, maintain lactation or transition towards breastfeeding post-surgery will be discussed. Health care professionals involved in the care sometimes lack the expertise of supporting breastfeeding and often only recommend maternal pumping and specialised bottles. There is limited research about feeding infants with CL/P directly at the breast.
A clinical case will be presented to illustrate clinical techniques and sequence of care.
Jeanette Mesite Frem, MHS, IBCLC, RLC, CCE is an experienced childbirth educator, IBCLC-lactation consultant and retired birth doula. She started her career working with families while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa in the early 90s. She loved that work so much she went on to receive a public health masters degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, focusing her studies on nutrition for maternal and child health. Her two children were breastfed for more than 2 years each and Jeanette has experience pumping at work for both children and has supported more than a thousand families with feeding and pumping over the last 20 years.
Jeanette provides prenatal childbirth and breastfeeding classes at her office in Northborough, Massachusetts, as well as providing virtual and office feeding consultations. She also enjoys leading workshops for perinatal health professionals and mentoring those who work with families. If you have questions, feel free to email [email protected].
As lactation professionals, our overall goal is to help more babies get more human milk. Our work often includes supporting families with pumping. For many years, we have been told to "size up" for pump flange/breast shield size but many parents and lactation professionals are now finding that sizing down is much more effective for comfort, yield and pumping efficiency. But how small? Do silicone flanges work just as well as hard plastic? Does the shape of the flange influence milk removal and comfort? This session will show participants many different flanges sizes, several different types of flanges and video snippets of real parents pumping with some of them. The session will focus on how lactation professionals can actually do a flange fitting WITH a client, both in-person and virtually. Providing effective flange fitting services as a lactation professional can increase pumping comfort and significantly increase milk yield and extend the duration of lactation for many families.
Julie Matheney knew when she was ten years old that she wanted to feed babies for a living. She earned her Masters in speech-language pathology and has worked with feeding and swallowing disorders for over a decade. While most people assume speech therapists teach children who stutter or work on ""r's and s's"", the bulk of her job is feeding and swallowing as part of a hospital based, rehabilitation team. The same things you speak with, you eat with! Over the past decade working in the NICU, she discovered her passion for working with breastfeeding families and became an IBCLC in 2018.
She transitioned out of the hospital in July 2021 and currently works full time in private practice as a lactation consultant in Los Angeles. She enjoys helping the whole family in the feeding process to meet their goals.
Her loving husband is always supportive of her in her vocational passions and was instrumental in launching her private practice. She has two young daughters, both of whom were exclusively breastfed until two years old.
Topic: Overcoming Challenges to Feeding: Supporting Parents with Physical, Mental or Socioemotional Differences - Part 2 - [View Abstract]
For years we have learned how to support breastfeeding for the infant with differences and disabilities. There is a lack of education and support however for mothers/lactating parents who face these same challenges. Studies show parents with differences and disabilities are less likely to receive adequate prenatal care and breastfeeding assistance compared to those without disabilities. How do we support lactation for parents who have physical, mental, and emotional/social differences? Each type of difference or disability also has specific needs for adaptations, to the environment and to the tools we would use to facilitate position, latch, and lactation success. This session helps participants use critical thinking to ask the right questions, make adjustments to the environment, and create functional plans specific to the individual needs of the parent. The three domains we will be discussing are physical challenges, social/emotional challenges, and the neurodiverse.
For years we have learned how to support breastfeeding for the infant with differences and disabilities. There is a lack of education and support however for mothers/lactating parents who face these same challenges. Studies show parents with differences and disabilities are less likely to receive adequate prenatal care and breastfeeding assistance compared to those without disabilities. How do we support lactation for parents who have physical, mental, and emotional/social differences? Each type of difference or disability also has specific needs for adaptations, to the environment and to the tools we would use to facilitate position, latch, and lactation success. This session helps participants use critical thinking to ask the right questions, make adjustments to the environment, and create functional plans specific to the individual needs of the parent. The three domains we will be discussing are physical challenges, social/emotional challenges, and the neurodiverse.
Katherine is a Senior Lecturer at School of Sociology, Australian National University. Katherine’s particular areas of interest include the sociology of reproduction and motherhood, perinatal medicine, lactation sciences, human milk banking and donation. Her current projects include an Australian Research Council funded study on maternal experiences of lactation after infant death, and a Mayo Clinic funded research project on the communication with families regarding periviable infant resuscitation.
Every day, around the world, many mothers are faced with the complex task of managing the initial onset, or continuation, of their lactation following a late miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal or infant loss. This presentation explores findings from a multi-year, multi-site Australian study conducted with bereaved families and health professionals that confirmed the limited nature and scope of lactation care currently available to bereaved families.
This presentation will provide evidence of the need and benefit of approaching lactation after infant death using a biopsychosocial care framework, so that bereaved families are able to make informed decisions from the full array of lactation management options that may be available including: suppression, sustained expression, breastmilk donation or using milk as memento. The challenges involved in providing bereaved lactation care will be acknowledged and discussed. Health professionals will be advised on what information and support bereaved families need and want, how and when this information may be best provided and who may be best placed to offer lactation care to bereaved families.
Kelsie Barta is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who lives in Richmond, Texas with her spouse and two young children. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nursing Science with Texas Woman’s University, with a primary research interest in lactation. She occupies her time with various part-time endeavors, including working as a Family Nurse Practitioner, a Clinical Nursing Instructor for nursing students in their maternal child health and pediatric clinical experiences, lactation consulting, and volunteer work with an emerging nonprofit maternal health organization in Houston, Texas. Her experiences with lactation are dynamic. Professionally, she has worked with breastfeeding/chestfeeding dyads in a postpartum hospital unit, through outpatient clinic visits, and via antenatal education. Her personal experiences include breastfeeding her children, serving as a resource to friends and family, and generally being “plugged in” to how lactation and lactation consulting may be perceived among people her age. She is passionate about empowering parents to reach their infant feeding goals, equitable access to lactation care, and health policy.
Health professionals that interact with birthing parents and their infants in the first few days of life are uniquely positioned to impact lactation. In the context of the maternal guilt, shame, and stigmatization that can accompany infant feeding decisions, lactation professionals have an obligation to provide ethical care. This presentation will review the ethical guidelines of autonomy, nonmaleficence, and justice in the context of lactation support in the early postpartum period. Participants will be presented with strategies to mitigate harm, promote autonomous decision-making, and increase equity in lactation care. Based on these ethical principles, the extent of lactation promotion and language considerations will be discussed, as well as an in-depth look at the health professional’s ethical responsibilities when encountering cessation of exclusive human milk feedings.
Kristin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and IBCLC in private practice in central NJ. Her practice specialties are low supply, maternal and infant mental health, and the intersection of ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender in the care of the new family. She has spoken on various lactation, mental health, and equity topics for USLCA, the Lehigh Valley Breastfeeding Association Conference, the Appalachian Breastfeeding Conference, LPPEC, LC in PP, and for LLL of the Garden State. She designed and taught a training course on Mental Health First Aid for Perinatal Providers. She has been a featured speaker on several lactation related podcasts.
She is the mother of two children who nursed full term despite maternal IGT, and who are now 16 and 13. She is an anti racist LGBT+ activist, a member of transformative works fandoms, and makes fighting for a better world part of her daily life.
As lactation professionals, we see clients who are experiencing many challenges during the perinatal period. Clients with eating disorders are uniquely at risk, as are their babies. This presentation will educate the perinatal professional about how eating disorders present in the childbearing year and beyond. It will explore the connection between trauma and disordered eating, and teach how to be a trauma informed provider for eating disordered clients. It will discuss the specific and unique challenges the person with an eating disorder may have during lactation, including postpartum body image, elimination diets, and provider bias. The learner will gain the skills needed to screen for disordered eating and provide culturally humble and appropriate referral for congruent care.
Laurie-Anne Muldoon has supported families both as an RN and as a Social Worker in a variety of hospital, public health and community mental health settings in the U.S. and Canada for the last 25 years. She has felt privileged to have companioned many women, families and groups through their experiences of loss, upheaval and life transitions. Her passion for perinatal mental health was reignited following her own birthing and breastfeeding experiences with her son 11 years ago. Laurie-Anne brings her compassion and respect for human dignity to her work with parents transitioning into the world of parenthood. She is founder of The Ottawa Integrative Mental Health Collective. A proud Franco-Ontarian, Laurie-Anne was born and raised in Ottawa Ontario. She currently works in private practice specializing in perinatal mental health, birth trauma and loss.
For many mothers/lactating parents, their reasons for deciding to breast/chestfeed are often grounded in an effort to do what’s best for themselves and their child. Unfortunately, the reality is that on the road to trying to be the best parent they can be, breast/chestfeeding doesn’t always work out in the way that parents had hoped. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t work out at all. This loss can be deeply felt by a parent for a long time.
This presentation will explore what is at the heart of breast/chestfeeding grief and what distinguishes it from other types of grief. Lactation providers will also learn about several socio-cultural factors that amplify grief after the loss of the breast/chestfeeding relationship. Additionally, attendees will learn about some of the emerging data related to how the pandemic has impacted this type of grief. And lastly, we will take a closer look at how to respond more effectively to clients who are experiencing the loss of a breast/chestfeeding relationship with their child.
Megan Dunn is an experienced Lactation Consultant, infant feeding specialist, and Health Educator with nearly two decades of experience providing comprehensive lactation education and clinical care. With a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Sociology and a minor in Communication, Megan offers holistic, evidence-based care and develops innovative care plans in a Trauma-Informed environment. Megan is an award-winning breastfeeding advocate, currently serving as the President of the Oregon Washington Lactation Association, and has successfully implemented and developed clinical lactation services and Medicaid billing for Public Health lactation care.
The billions of unicellular organisms which form a symbiotic relationship with our bodies provide essential functions which regulate, modulate, and maintain homeostasis. The microbiome has an essential role in prompting a proper immune response, maintaining adequate digestion and metabolic function, managing inflammatory status, supporting mental health, and many more functions which are required for good health. Dysbiotic conditions during the perinatal period are common and impact the infant feeding relationship.
In this presentation, participants will learn about the functions of the microbiome as it relates to lactation and infant health as well as the consequences of dysbiosis and its impact on lactation/infant feeding.
Additionally, participants will learn how to address dysbiotic conditions within their profession’s scope. This presentation provides clinically applicable information and recommendations that participants can apply when providing lactation education and developing care plans.
Melissa Cole is a board-certified lactation consultant, neonatal oral-motor assessment professional and clinical herbalist in private practice. Melissa is passionate about providing comprehensive, holistic lactation support and improving the level of clinical lactation skills for health professional. She enjoys teaching, researching and writing about wellness and lactation-related topics. Her bachelor’s degree is in maternal/child health and lactation and her master’s degree is in therapeutic herbalism. Before pursuing her current path, Melissa’s background was in education and cultural arts, which has served her well in her work as a lactation consultant and healthcare educator. She loves living, working and playing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her 3 children.
Concerns about low milk production can be frustrating for parents and clinicians alike. There are many reasons milk production can be compromised. How can lactation and health professionals best assess the root causes of the production issue at hand and suggest targeted, sustainable ideas? This presentation will help clinicians think about the ‘detective work’ needed to help provide personalized care. Through interactive case studies, participants will critically-think about assessment and care plan strategies for the families in their care that are struggling with low milk production.
Merete Eggesboe, MD and an environmental epidemiologist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, is dedicated to understanding the role of the microbiome and environmental toxicants in children’s health. In order to do so she initiated the prospective HUMIS & NoMIC birth cohorts, encompassing more than 2600 mother-child pairs where the gut microbiome and toxicant exposure has been mapped in human milk and fecal samples. She has now followed them for 18 years and the longitudinal extensive data collection provides a wealth of research opportunities. It has also been linked to the Norwegain Patient Registry where all specialist diagnosis set on all research subjects are available. The focus so far has been on understanding their role in reproductive health, growth/obesity, neuropsychological functioning and vaccine immune responses. Recent studies have also looked at how toxicants in human milk may affect the infant’s microbiome. And vice versa: how our gut microbiome affects the metabolism of toxicants. She has been cited >6000 times over the last 5 years and has an h-index of 51 and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers. She is a popular speaker, leads several prestigious Norwegian Research council programs and participates in several EU projects.
According to a recent WHO/UN report, synthetic chemicals are a threat to human health. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) are of special concern to humans since they bioaccumulate and biomagnify. Species on the top of the food chain pyramid such as humans are thus among the most heavily exposed. POPS is a group of chemicals compromising PCBs, DDT, Dioxin, Organic Pesticides, flame retardants, as well as the more recent contaminants perfluorinated compounds. They are ubiquitous in air, water and soil, food and humans. In spite of DDT being forbidden more than 40 years ago, both DDT and its metabolite DDE, are still found in breastmilk. This demonstrates the long legacy of these chemicals. The child is exposed to the mother's accumulated levels while in the womb since most of these chemicals pass to the uterus unrestricted, and through breast milk. In spite of declining levels of forbidden POPs we demonstrate that perinatal exposure to POPs are associated with adverse effects on infant health. Large multi-cohort studies encompassing many thousand mother-child pairs report adverse effects of these chemicals on growth and neurodevelopment, with an increased risk of obesity and behavioral disorders among those most heavily exposed.
Monica Esparza is currently the Executive Director of the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force. She is a trained Certified Lactation Counselor and Community Interpreter who previously served families as a breastfeeding peer counselor for more than 10 years, providing peer-to-peer support to lactating families through the Department of Health Women's, Infant & Children's program both individually and in the hospital setting. She participated as a Leader in the Health Connect One Birth Leadership Academy and the NM Women of Color Leaders in Non-profit. She has served on different boards and currently sits on the National College of Midwifery Board and the New Mexico Certified Nurse Midwives Board. As a Mexican, Immigrant woman living in the south valley of Albuquerque, she brings a grassroots community approach and an equity lens into her every aspect of her work. She understands the importance of centering families and Black, Indigenous and People Of Color as a crucial step into achieve birth equity. She enjoys hiking and gardening with her husband and 2 children.
For low-income, immigrant, and rural families and their infants, access to lactation care is a critical need at one of the most vulnerable times of a child’s life. A root cause of this significant gap is the lack of lactation professionals and lactation-support training for healthcare professionals and home visitors. Knowing that home visitors are critical for families, the New Mexico Breastfeeding Taskforce (NMBTF) conducted a survey in 2020 to ascertain how to help increase home visitors’ knowledge and confidence about lactation issues so they can better support families. The survey results indicated that only 42% of home visitors had ever attended a breastfeeding class and that 100% of those surveyed could benefit from the support of lactation professionals in the communities they serve. In order to address this gap, NMBTF developed a combination of the Home Visitor Lactation Support Program and the Certified Lactation Counselors (CLC) Training programs for Lactation Education and Support Expansion in NM. First, NMBTF is piloting comprehensive lactation training for home visitors that addresses the basic lactation education they need to support the families they serve. The training program is evidence-based and includes culturally sensitive parent education, knowledge about latch and positioning, and guidance for accessing related local community resources. NMBTF partnered with home visiting programs to provide lactation education to their home visitors. Second, NMBTF worked to recruit women of color for the CLC training and provide financial aid. As CLCs, they will then be able to provide a network of expanded and enhanced lactation support in the underserved communities they serve, for their clients, and act as a resource to other home visitors.
Melissa Cole is a board-certified lactation consultant, neonatal oral-motor assessment professional and clinical herbalist in private practice. Melissa is passionate about providing comprehensive, holistic lactation support and improving the level of clinical lactation skills for health professional. She enjoys teaching, researching and writing about wellness and lactation-related topics. Her bachelor’s degree is in maternal/child health and lactation and her master’s degree is in therapeutic herbalism. Before pursuing her current path, Melissa’s background was in education and cultural arts, which has served her well in her work as a lactation consultant and healthcare educator. She loves living, working and playing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her 3 children.
Anna Le Grange is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Paediatric Nurse, Mindfulness teacher and Author. She has worked with new families for over 20 years in a variety of clinical roles. Anna brings her passion for psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness into her lactation support work and facilitates other professionals to incorporate emotional well-being tools into their own lactation practice.
Mother to 3 children, Anna breastfed her 3rd child following breast reduction surgery and experienced first-hand, the emotional challenges that so often relate to infant feeding complexities. She used her personal experiences alongside mindfulness and lactation knowledge, to create a toolbox of techniques for breastfeeding families, which she includes in her courses and book, The Mindful Breastfeeding Book. Anna believes whole-heartedly in prioritising calm and connection within our breastfeeding support practices, both for our clients and ourselves.
Anna is currently studying for a MSc in Positive Psychology at Buckingham New University and has spoken at various events including the ILactation conference and Womanfest.
Dipti Shah is a Mother Support Group Leader - Lactation Counsellor since 1998 & Lactation Consultant since 2010. She was trained by BPNI Maharashtra Faculty & has been providing Lactation Counselling services in multiple Institutional Hospitals & small maternity homes in Mumbai for over 2 decades. She has wide experience in community advocacy & Individual Counselling in indoor, OPD, home and online settings. She is senior trainer for BPNI Maharashtra & participated as faculty in over 100 workshops in Seven States of India & for 5 batches of ’96 hrs of Lactation Specific Education’ for IBLCE preparation (2010-2021). She mentored many Lactation counsellors and consultants. She is a BFHI Assessor since 2001 & has trained two groups of ‘Traditional Massage Women’ in basics of infant feeding and childcare. She has extensively contributed to multiple training modules, presentations & videos for BPNI Maharashtra & Maharashtra Government & UNICEF. She is also office coordinator of BPNI Maharashtra since 2004. She participated in Expanded Global Breastfeeding Partners Meeting (GBPM) of WABA at Penang, Malaysia in 2010. She was felicitated with ‘Dr N.B. Kumta Award’ in 2016. She exclusively breastfed her son for 6 months and continued well into 2nd year.
The care of breast/chestfeeding dyads is not always straightforward. With the potential for postpartum medical concerns in parent or baby, the potential for a parent needing mental health support and the possibility of a baby needing a type of feeding support that falls outside of the scope of practice or experience of a lactation professional, it’s important for care provides to know when to refer, how to navigate barriers to referral and how to work collaboratively with other care providers once a referral has been made. Our panel of expert speakers will be sharing their clinical knowledge and experience to address these issues and help lactation professionals with the practicalities of making referrals and working collaboratively to ensure optimal outcomes for their clients.
Rebecca began her lactation journey with her undergraduate senior thesis evaluating a breastfeeding education program. After working as a doula and childbirth educator, she decided to pursue a Master’s in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health. There, she was also in the first class of the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative, a Pathway 2 IBCLC training program. After graduating, she first worked full time as an IBCLC in a large academic hospital. She then became the Director of Lactation Services at a busy freestanding birth center. After making the move to a new state, she went into private practice part-time, and expanded her focus on a longtime passion: providing education for IBCLCs, lactation trainees, and health care providers. She also has special interests in research, support for the LGBTQ+ community, and coalition-building to advance and support IBCLC services.
Many lactation consultants enter practice without ever being fully oriented to lactation-specific note-taking/charting. If you come from a peer counseling background where formal medical charting wasn’t used; a health care professional background that didn’t focus on lactation; or you’re an IBCLC who has been in practice for a while and is looking to level up your note taking, this talk is for you. We will discuss three common challenges: making charting something that improves your patient care (instead of just being a chore); documenting in difficult clinical and legal situations; and balancing your visit time between note-taking and interaction with patients. And we’ll practice with some real-life scenarios to put our skills into practice.
Rosann Edwards is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, an experienced front line public health nurse, and lactation consultant. She is also a third-degree karate black belt, and mother of boys. Rosann’s research and community work focuses on breastfeeding, the transition to motherhood, maternal satisfaction with breast/infant feeding, mothering in the shelter system, and empowering vulnerable populations of women and their children. She is the co-editor of the recent Demeter Press Anthology Breasts across Motherhood: Lived Experiences and Critical Examinations.
Mothers 35 year of age or older are the fastest growing demographic of new mothers in many developed countries, & a steadily emerging global trend. The quality of a mother's breastfeeding experience has the potential to affect breastfeeding duration and factors that promote healthy maternal-infant attachment, infant growth and development, and maternal mental health. There is a lack of understanding of how older first-time mothers make decisions about breastfeeding and mothering. Learn more about new research that looked to answer the research question ‘What factors affect how first-time mothers >35 years of age make decisions about breastfeeding and the motherhood in the first six months postpartum?’ The findings provide a framework to work in partnership with older first-time mothers to enhance positive breastfeeding experiences, adaptation to motherhood and positive mental health outcomes through strategies that promote resiliency and shared decision-making around early postpartum care, and breastfeeding/infant feeding supports. Key components include helping mothers identify what satisfaction with breastfeeding is for them, encouraging increased levels of knowledge, control, trust and ownership, supporting them in redefining their core self, and providing realistic, evidence-based information.
Stacy Davis is the Health Equity and Community Partnerships Manager for the National Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Association. Inspired by her personal and professional experiences, Stacy has focused her efforts on addressing health equities in Maternal Child Health, locally, nationally and internationally, especially as it pertains to black and brown families.
As the former executive director of the National Association of Professional and Peer Lactation Supporters of Color, Stacy established the organization as a brand and leader in the field- addressing racial inequity in lactation support and education, acting as expert panelist and collaborator with other leading organizations, and holding privileged organizations accountable and responsible for the health and wellbeing of communities of color. Additionally, she participated in the growth and expansion of equitable access to Pathway 2 lactation training programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, such as Johnson C. Smith and North Carolina A&T Universities. She co-developed and hosted a unique event of its kind- The Amazing R.A.C.E.- a safe space retreat for Maternal Child Health professionals and supporters.
Stacy is a graduate of Western Michigan University where she obtained her master’s degree in Public Health. She has received numerous honors including, but not limited a member of the Center for Social Inclusion’s First Food Racial Equity Cohort, IBCLE’s Spotlight, and the AHEAD in WIC Health Equity Champion. Stacy Davis is a United States Lactation Consultant Association Board of Director.
New parents do not anticipate a challenging journey when it comes breast-/chest-feeding. When things do not go as planned, parents are therefore often consumed by fear and uncertainty and look to professionals for support. Being the person guiding the steps of a new, lactating parent creates a challenge. How do you design a care plan which address the concerns of the parent(s) but also allows the parent(s) to act as a member of the team and the expert on what is best for them and their family in their current life circumstances? How do you foster self-efficacy, and self-empowerment in your clients to ensure that your plan of care is feasible and within the capacity of the parent(s)? Learn more about the importance of meeting parents where they are at to create a care plan which is mutual, feasible, and sustainable. This presentation will be a 60-minute Q&A session so bring your questions about how to approach communication and counselling to create a plan of care that really works for your clients and helps them to meet or exceed their infant feeding goals.
Stephanie Wagner, "Steph", is a Registered Nurse of 20 years, her first 13 years working Labor & Delivery in various hospitals in Virginia, California, and New York, working as a Travel Nurse for many years. Steph graduated from James Madison University in Virginia in 2001 with her BSN. She became a Certified Lactation Educator in 2012 and an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant in 2014. After working in the hospital setting for 18 years, she now works solely as a Lactation Consultant in Private Practice. Her Private Practice, EverLatching Love, started in 2015 in NYC. EverLatching Love provides Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding/Bodyfeeding support and education by way of home visits and virtual consultations. Steph is the current Treasurer of the New York Lactation Consultant Association (NYLCA) and a member of the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA) as well as the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA). She has been featured in Romper.com, nymag.com, the Strategist, TLC the TV network, and other media outlets such as the Breastfeeding Outside the Box podcast series. She teaches part time for Evergreen Perinatal Education, proudly educating new lactation professionals entering our field. She speaks at conferences and to groups across the Country on best practice when working with LGBTQ+ families who may use the language and action of Chestfeeding or Bodyfeeding their babies. Making sure healthcare is always aware of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for all persons is a pilar of Steph’s work. Steph is a proud Certified OutCare Healthcare Professional as of March 2020 and is very proud to be featured on OutCare Health’s OutList of Medical Professionals. She was privileged to speak at the New York Coming Out Conference, the first ever International Transgender Conference in NYC, in October 2019. The conference had a big emphasis on healthcare and Steph presented on Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding/Bodyfeeding to the Transgender and Non-Binary community in attendance. She is constantly learning about Queer culture and advances in human lactation, and she works hard to find the best ways to intersect them for inclusive care.
This presentation will provide the learner with further knowledge about the current needs of the LGBTQ+ community in the context of healthcare, and particularly as it pertains to breastfeeding/chestfeeding/bodyfeeding for all families who desire to feed their infant/child in this way. Participants of this education will learn about some history of the LGBTQ+ community within healthcare, appropriate inclusive language and its critical relevance within the LGBTQ+ community, and will learn about tools and resources available to feel more confident when taking care of a family or a parent who identifies as a LGBTQ+ human.
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Annet Mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became a mother for the first time. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer with the Dutch breastfeeding Organization and in 2008 sat for and passed the exam administered by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, she now
Annet Mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became a mother for the first time. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer with the Dutch breastfeeding Organization text text text text more name mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became.
Dr. Speakers Full Name
Speaker Credentials