Mélissa Mialon, BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Mialon is a Research Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Her research focuses on the commercial determinants of health (CDoH). She is the co-author of a Lancet series and a book on the topic, entitled « Big Food & Cie », in French. Dr Mialon co-coordinates the « Governance, Ethics and Conflicts of Interest in Public Health » (GECI-PH) network.

The commercial determinants of health and breastfeeding

Participants will learn about commercial determinants of health, and how this translates into influence on infant and young child feeding.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC

Marsha Walker is a registered nurse and international board certified lactation consultant. She has been assisting breastfeeding families in hospital, clinic, and home settings since 1976. As such, she advocates for breastfeeding at the state and federal levels. She served as a vice president of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) from 1990-1994 and in 1999 as president of ILCA. She is a previous board member of the US Lactation Consultant Association, Baby Friendly USA, Massachusetts Lactation Consultant Association, and the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition. She serves as Associate Editor of Clinical Lactation, and a board member of the National Lactation Consultant Alliance. Marsha is an international speaker, and an author of numerous publications including ones on the hazards of infant formula use, Code issues in the US, and Breastfeeding Management for the Clinician: Using the Evidence, 5th edition.

he infant formula shortage: what are we short on

The response to the infant formula shortage in the United States focused on increasing access to infant formula. The formula shortage was caused by a convergence of factors including market concentration of formula manufacturers, lax federal policies, supply chain issues, short-sighted legislators and policy makers, and regulations favoring the the continued monopoly in formula manufacturing. Absent from the response and discussion was how to reduce the demand for infant formula. This presentation will review the multiple contributors to the formula crisis, the players involved in precipitating the formula shortage, and interventions to reduce the demand for infant formula.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Sandra Zadkovic, BA (Hons)

Sandra Zadkovic is a proud mother, breastfeeding peer support volunteer, and non-profit sector worker where she has been a part of organizations addressing health, food security, and environmental issues. Her personal breastfeeding experience sparked an interest and passion for protecting breastfeeding rights. As a student in the Ecological Public Health course at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Sandra explored the historical and ongoing intersections between breastfeeding and climate change, presenting her research in the article Breastfeeding and Climate Change: Overlapping Vulnerabilities and Integrating Responses published in the Journal of Human Lactation in April 2020. The goal of her research is to urge health professionals, policy makers, non-profit organizations and breastfeeding advocates everywhere to recognize the systemic roots of breastfeeding subversion and work in solidarity with other anti-oppressive movements, including the climate justice movement.

Breastfeeding and climate change

Informed by an ecological public health approach, this talk will examine the relationship between two overlapping global public health challenges that disproportionately impact women and children: climate change and breastfeeding subversion. We will explore root historical causes and contemporary overlapping vulnerabilities guided by political ecological and ecofeminist theory and visualized through a co-mapping of global climate risk and breastfeeding rates. Informed by this analysis, we will explore pathways for change from the ground up by focusing on solidarity across social and environmental justice movements.

0.75 E (VII) CERP

Dr Irma Hidayana

Dr Irma Hidayana is an independent public health consultant with a doctorate in health and behavior studies from Columbia University, USA. Her research focuses on the impact of the baby food industry on public health, on conflict of interest in public health, and on public health and human rights.

She is the initiator of a community-based reporting platform that received and collected information on violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, Pelanggaran Kode.

Exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic by BMS companies in Indonesia

This presentation will describe the unethical marketing practices of commercial formula milk and other breast milk substitute products during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This presentation suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided novel opportunities for the baby food industry to attempt to circumvent the Code aggressively with newer marketing strategies in Indonesia.

0.75 E (VII) CERP

Aimee Grant, PhD

Dr Aimee Grant is a Senior Lecturer in public health and a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, at Swansea University UK. Aimee’s postdoctoral research has focused on experiences of pregnancy and early parenthood for marginalised groups, including white working class and Disabled people. In 2019, she was diagnosed as Autistic and began researching Autistic reproductive health. She is interested in qualitative methodological development and has written two books to date: Doing Excellent Research With Documents (Routledge, 2019) and Doing Your Research Project With Documents (Policy Press, 2022). She is currently writing The Autism-friendly guide to pregnancy (and the fourth trimester), which will be published in 2024.

Breastfeeding in public: barriers and facilitators

In many developed countries, rates of breastfeeding decrease soon after birth. Research highlights breastfeeding outside of the home as a barrier to breastfeeding continuation. This presentation highlights barriers and facilitators and provides practical examples of supportive strategies.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Phyll Buchanan, MSc (Oxon)

Phyll Buchanan is a Breastfeeding Network (BfN) Supporter, tutor and supervisor. She is a co-author of the recently updated Cochrane review ‘Support for healthy breastfeeding women with healthy term babies’ and helped to lead on stakeholder and parent co- production for the NIHR-funded Action4Breastfeeding study. She was one of the founders of the UK Breastfeeding Network (BfN) in 1997 and was seconded to the Department of Health for three years 2008-11.

Eleanor Campbell, BSc, IBCLC, PGCE

Eleanor Campbell is the Chair of the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers. She has been involved on third sector breastfeeding support since 2013, as a peer supporter, breastfeeding counsellor. As an educator, her focus is on improving access to training and accessibility of training materials.
She has a private practice as an IBCLC in London, where she lives with her three daughters.

Zoe Faulkner, BA (Hons), IBCLC

Zoe Faulkner has been Chair of Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB) since 2015. Zoe worked as a Breastfeeding Peer Support Coordinator for 15 years for Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust in Brighton and Hove, managing, training and supervising around 40 volunteers at any one time. She is now in a Breastfeeding Specialist role, providing support to families experiencing persistent and complex challenges as well as supporting the implementation of BFI standards.
Zoe is co-author of The role and practice of the IBCLC in GB research project. Other work includes co-writing a number of articles for Midirs.
Zoe also teaches breastfeeding to NHS colleagues and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton. She has also spoken at a number of national and international conferences, such as ILCA, iLactation and MAINN, where she has presented on The role and practice of the IBCLC in GB and topics relating to Breastfeeding Peer Support. She is also a former NICE Guideline committee member. Zoe has a small private practice as an IBCLC in her local area. and also sits on the ILCA Board of Directors.

Unpacking the expertise: developing the UK infant feeding competencies framework

This presentation discusses the development of the UK Infant Feeding Support Competencies Framework: a tool that sets out the range of knowledge, skills and attributes required by the infant feeding workforce and maps them against different roles or groups of similar roles. The purpose is to improve services and workforce diversity by identifying shared knowledge and skills, and unique characteristics of roles within the UK infant feeding support workforce.

1.50 E (VII) CERP