Ethics Extravaganza 2026

June - July, 2026

Photo credit: Paul Carter, We Do It In Public. Used with permission.

Our 12th online ethics conference, Ethics Extravaganza 2026, was made up of E CERP presentations from our conferences in 2024 and 2025. iLactation offered 5.00 E CERPs for IBCLCs around the world to help satisfy the requirement for a minimum of 5 E CERPs on ethics and related topics for IBCLC re-certification, including 2 hours on the WHO Code.

Maternity protection to enable breastfeeding

Catherine Pereira-Kotze, RD(SA), MNutr, PhD - Read more

Maternity protection to enable breastfeeding

Catherine Pereira-Kotze, RD(SA), MNutr, PhD

Dr Catherine Pereira-Kotze has been working in the field of public health nutrition since 2005. Her work experience includes the programme management of, training, and research in maternal, infant, and young child nutrition. She is passionate about the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding and striving to make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable groups. Her skills include public health nutrition research and policy advocacy, communications, education, training and mentorship. She has worked in low-, middle- and high-income country settings. Catherine spent most of her life in Cape Town (South Africa), and in 2020, relocated to the UK. She is currently working as a part-time Senior Nutritionist at First Steps Nutrition Trust and a consultant to Alive and Thrive East Asia Pacific.

Maternity protection to enable breastfeeding

This presentation will provide an overview of comprehensive maternity protection including global guidance and latest research on how maternity protection enables breastfeeding. It will also provide examples of groups that are vulnerable to not accessing maternity protection (for example, non-standard or informal workers). Catherine will share some of the research and examples of work she has done on this topic.

1.00 E (V,VII) CERP

Estimating carbon and water footprints associated with commercial milk formula production and use: development and implications of the Green Feeding Climate Action Tool

Julie Smith, PhD, B Ec (hons)/B A, Cert VI BF Couns & BF Educ - Read more

Estimating carbon and water footprints associated with commercial milk formula production and use: development and implications of the Green Feeding Climate Action Tool

Julie Smith, PhD, B Ec (hons)/B A, Cert VI BF Couns & BF Educ

Dr Julie Smith is an Honorary Associate Professor and awarded Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University. Her recent research has focussed on the economics and environmental aspects of breastfeeding and markets in mothers milk. She also leads an economic study of maternity care support for breastfeeding in Australia, funded by a grant from the Medical Research Future Fund.
She has advised the US Surgeon-General Office and WHO on the economics of breastfeeding, and conducted evidence reviews for WHO and the Australian Department of Health. She has also worked with international civil society organisations such as IBFAN and WABA. She recently led development of the Mothers’ Milk Tool and the Green Feeding Tool with Alive &Thrive Southeast Asia Pacific.
Dr Smith was previously a senior economist in the Australian and New Zealand government departments of Treasury, Finance, and Environment, working on development assistance and international finance, national accounting, taxation, and water markets.
She has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles, including recently in The Lancet, and is an Associate Editor for the International Breastfeeding Journal.

Estimating carbon and water footprints associated with commercial milk formula production and use: development and implications of the Green Feeding Climate Action Tool

Carbon offset frameworks like the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have largely overlooked interventions involving food, health, and care systems, including breastfeeding. The innovative Green Feeding Climate Action Tool (GFT) assesses the environmental impact of commercial milk formula (CMF) use, and advocates for recognising breastfeeding support interventions as legitimate carbon offsets. The GFT is an important innovation to quantify CMF’s environmental impact and highlight the significance of breastfeeding for planetary as well as human health.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Stronger regulations for formula marketing are needed to improve breastfeeding outcomes: lessons from the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series

Cecília Tomori, PhD, MA, BA - Read more

Stronger regulations for formula marketing are needed to improve breastfeeding outcomes: lessons from the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series

Cecília Tomori, PhD, MA, BA

Dr Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. Dr Tomori is an anthropologist and public health scholar, who is internationally recognized for her expertise on breastfeeding, infant sleep, and maternal child health. She is a co-author of the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series, several books – Anthropology of Reproduction (2025), Nighttime Breastfeeding (2025 [2014]), The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Reproduction (2022), Breastfeeding: New Anthropological Approaches (2018) – and numerous publications on a wide range of public health issues. Her work has been widely cited in peer reviewed literature, clinical and global public health guidance, and in the media.

Stronger regulations for formula marketing are needed to improve breastfeeding outcomes: lessons from the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series

This presentation will address key lessons from the 2023 Lancet Breastfeeding Series, which provides a synthesis of the most recent research on the critical importance of breastfeeding, the barriers and opportunities for creating systems that enable women globally to breastfeed as they desire. The talk will focus on the role of the commercial milk formula (CMF) industry and its far-reaching influence on families, health care providers and policy makers. The lecture will also provide a framework for the CMF industry playbook and specific examples of how this playbook is deployed to shape families’ and health professionals’ views of human infant behavior to generate profits. The talk will conclude with concrete strategies for policies and regulations that must be enacted to end unethical marketing and enable women to realize their breastfeeding goals.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Protecting the lives of babies: the challenging world of infant and young child feeding in emergencies

Karleen Gribble, PhD, BRurSc, CertIV Breastfeeding Education - Read more

Protecting the lives of babies: the challenging world of infant and young child feeding in emergencies

Karleen Gribble, PhD, BRurSc, CertIV Breastfeeding Education

Karleen Gribble is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is the author of more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on infant feeding, child protection, and child rights and is a world leading researcher on infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Dr Gribble has been involved in policy development and training on infants and young children in emergencies since 2006. She has provided advice to UN organisations, INGOs, health professionals, emergency responders and government bodies in many countries on infants and young children in emergencies. Dr Gribble is a current steering committee member of the international interagency collaboration the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group. She was Project lead for the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s Community Protection for Infants and Young Children in Bushfires
Project which worked to improve emergency preparedness and response in Australian emergencies. She was also senior author for the 2024 Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s position statement on breastfeeding in emergencies.

Protecting the lives of babies: the challenging world of infant and young child feeding in emergencies

This presentation will outline how breastfeeding is important in emergencies and how emergencies impact breastfeeding. It will empower participants with key actions that can be taken to support appropriate infant and young child feeding in emergencies.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

Code importance

Bridget Roache, RN, RM, IBCLC, Grad Dip CBE, MSc(Res) - Read more

Code importance

Bridget Roache, RN, RM, IBCLC, Grad Dip CBE, MSc(Res)

Bridget Roache is the owner of Facts of Life Lactation Education which provides online, comprehensive education for health professionals preparing to become lactation consultants, or who wish to upskill their breastfeeding management knowledge. Hundreds of lactation consultants have successfully undertaken education from Facts of Life.

Code importance

Understanding the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) is vital for all health professionals who work with women, babies and families. Ethical and evidence based practice ensures safe, respectful and appropriate care that supports optimal health outcomes, which underpins the Code.

1.00 E (VII) CERP

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