Breastmilk / Human Milk Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for Breastmilk / Human Milk for Lactation & Breastfeeding professional training. These Breastmilk / Human Milk online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This Breastmilk / Human Milk education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Divya Sinha Parikh MD, IBCLC, FAAP is a board certified pediatrician practicing in Columbus, OH. She received her medical training at The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and completed her residency in general pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at Case Western Reserve University. During residency, she created a breastfeeding medicine clinical rotation.
Within her practice, she has extensive experience managing lactation concerns and has taken a special interest in mentoring current and aspiring breastfeeding providers. She has presented her work at local and national meetings.
Rachel Walker received her master’s degree in exercise science and wellness from Old Dominion University and a PhD in nutritional sciences from Penn State University. Her PhD work focused on lipid metabolism and insulin resistance. She has over 3 years of experience teaching both nutrition and exercise science courses.
In 2020, she was selected for a research fellowship from the United States Department of Agriculture for her study, ‘The Role of Metabolic Health and Lipid Metabolism in Human Lactation and Milk Composition’. Her current research is focused on the effects of insulin resistance during pregnancy and lactation, especially with the goal of developing therapies to improve lactation.
She has presented her research at numerous national meetings. Rachel’s proudest achievement is becoming Mommy to her 3 children, Clark, Lee, and Nora.
The fat content of breastmilk is remarkably important for infant health outcomes. Therefore, it is important to understand what factors affect breastmilk fat profile. Total fat is the main determinant of energy in breastmilk, and varies with time of day, length of lactation, and duration of the feed. Maternal factors also influence milk fat, including BMI, parity, and diabetes. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, like docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid, are vital to the structure and development of the infant brain, and attaining the correct balance is important for optimal development. Breastmilk fatty acid concentration, especially the polyunsaturated fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid, are vital to infant brain development. Fatty acid concentrations primarily depend on diet and vary significantly between populations, but other maternal factors can also affect the fatty acid content of breastmilk.
Breastmilk fat content has significant implications for clinical practice. First, it is necessary to optimize clinical methods for human milk fat measurement, such as bedside human milk analyzers. Second, understanding milk fat variation will help optimize breastmilk fortification for infants in neonatal intensive care units. Finally, variability in donor milk also makes estimation of fat and energy in milk banks difficult, with important clinical implications for preterm infants who cannot receive mother’s own milk.
View Details / Enroll
Effect of the Spray Drying Process, High Pressures, and Radiation on the Nutritional Quality of Human Milk
Dr. Blanca Aguilar Uscanga is a Biochemical Engineer in Food Science and has a Masters in Food Science. She graduated from the Institute Technologic of Veracruz (ITV) México. She completed her doctoral studies in the specialty of Biotechnology at the National Institute of the Sciences Appliqués of Toulouse in France.
She is currently a full-time research professor (since 2006) at the Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierías (CUCEI) de la Universidad de Guadalajara. Dr. Aguilar Uscanga is adjunct professor to the Department of Pharmacobiology, where she teaches courses of Applied Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Science to undergraduate and PhD students.
She is a member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico recognized by CONACYT, with level 2. The research areas are: Food Biotechnology and Microbiology, which cover different areas of research such as: Obtaining bioactive compounds and metabolites of industrial importance through of microorganisms, production and development of functional foods, fermented beverages, probiotics, prebiotics and food safety.
She has international collaborations with the Institute Armand Frappier, Canada and the Institut sur la nutrition et les aliments fonctionnels (INAF) in Québec. Currently she is member of INRS and has an honorable mention of “Professeure associée” provided by the INRS- the Institute Armand Frappier in Laval, Canada.
Human milk is the first food that the newborn receives and provides all the nutrients necessary for its growth. In order to feed children with breastfeeding problems, Human Milk Banks (BLH) were implemented, which conserve this food through pasteurization and freezing processes. Because human milk is very perishable, this work will present some results obtained on spray drying, high hydrostatic pressures, and UV radiation in human milk, in order to preserve and avoid loss of nutrients in this food, as well as offer a new alternative to the BLH for its conservation.
View Details / Enroll
View Details / Enroll
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.
Funny Tasting Milk: The Biochemistry and Clinical Applications of Human Milk Oxidation vs. High Lipase Action
After studying biology at Meredith College in North Carolina, Nicola Singletary, PhD, MAT, IBCLC spent the early part of her career sharing her love of science with middle school students. It was not until after the birth of her first child in 2007 and the challenges she faced breastfeeding that she became interested in pursuing a career in breastfeeding support. She enrolled at North Carolina State University to study human nutrition and completed the Mary Rose Tully Training Initiative through the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at UNC Chapel Hill in 2012. In the fall of 2013, she opened Harmony Lactation, LLC with the goal of helping mothers meet their breastfeeding goals. She recently completed her PhD in Nutrition and is a postdoctoral researcher at NCSU; her research focuses on breastfeeding education. She is also co-owner of Next Level Lactation, an educational and consulting company for lactation professionals.
Topic: Funny Tasting Milk: The Biochemistry and Clinical Applications of Human Milk Oxidation vs. High Lipase Action - [View Abstract]
Some breastfeeding parents find that their stored milk tastes sour or rancid, and sometimes this milk is refused by their baby. These flavors and odors are often described as metallic, fishy, rancid, sweaty or soapy. But what exactly causes these ‘off’ flavors and what can be done about milk that is refused? Is the solution always to scald milk? Milk with high lipase action leads to milk with increased levels of free fatty acids during storage that can produce rancid and sweaty flavors. Enzymes such as lipase can be inactivated by heating prior to milk storage. Milk with high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids is susceptible to fat oxidation during storage leading to fishy and metallic flavors. Storage recommendations to reduce oxidation of fatty acids in milk include using short storage times, thawing at cold temperatures, and avoiding light exposure during storage. Case studies of both oxidized milk and high lipase action will be presented along with possible solutions.
View Details / Enroll
View Details / Enroll
I was born in Detroit Michigan and graduate from M.L. King High School in 2001. I completed a B.S. in Chemistry at Oakland University in Michigan and Ph.D. in Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. After completing postdoctoral research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I began an independent career at Vanderbilt In 2014.
When antibiotics were first broadly introduced in the 1930s, they were considered the most important advancement in modern medicine. Deaths attributed to communicable diseases were drastically reduced leading to the belief that infectious diseases were conquerable. Bacteria, however, counter antibiotic chemotherapy with resistance mechanisms that result in the emergence of infections untreatable by the current artillery of therapeutics. Efforts to develop new antimicrobial agents with unique structural motifs and novel modes of action to fight multi-drug resistant pathogens are ongoing. During this seminar, I will discuss our groups ongoing efforts to develop human milk oligosaccharides as novel antimicrobial agents.
View Details / Enroll
Michal A. Young, M.D., FAAP, FABM is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University College of Medicine. She also serves as the Medical Director of the B.L.E.S.S. (Breastfeeding Lactation Education Support Services) Initiative as well as Director of the NICU and Newborn Services, at Howard University Hospital. She is a graduate of Howard University College of Medicine, Class of 1979. Dr. Young completed a rotating internship in Medicine and Pediatrics at Grady Memorial and Emory Hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by a Pediatric residency in the Howard University Hospital/D.C. General Hospital Combined Program, and a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital.
Dr. Young has several publications and presentations over a range of topics governing infant care. Her research interests are in developmental outcomes of the ELBW, HIV perinatal transmission, the Diabetic Dyad and in breastfeeding education for professionals and parents.
She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (sections on Perinatal Medicine and Breastfeeding), a Fellow and member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (Chairman of its Protocol Committee), member of the National Medical Association (a Past Chair of its Pediatric Section), Member of the Board of Directors for the D.C. Breastfeeding Coalition, Member of the Board of Directors for ROSE: Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, Inc., one of the Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinators for the D.C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Board Member of the Prolacta Bioscience Foundation.
Human milk provides multiple layers of immune protection to the newborn by providing bioactive components that protect the infant from pathogenic infection, facilitate immune development and establish a healthy gut microbiome. This presentation will review the cellular and humoral components of human milk that help provide this protection. Additionally, the nutritional components of human milk that also contribute to its immune impact will be briefly explored. The long-term protective effect of breast milk on adult illnesses and disease and its presumed role will be discussed. Lastly the impact milk storage, milk banking practices and use of donor milk as mechanisms to provide immune support to the newborn will be considered. An interactive power point presentation will be used to deliver this important topic.
View Details / Enroll
Talk To Me: How Breastmilk Acts as a Communication and Gene Expression Tool Between Mother and Child
Laurel Wilson, IBCLC, CLE, CCCE, CLD is a TEDx and international speaker, author, pregnancy and lactation expert, and consultant. She served as the Executive Director of Lactation Programs for CAPPA, the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association for 16 years and now is on the Senior Advisor Board. She served on the Board of Directors for the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2016-2019. She also is on the Advisory Board for InJoy Health. She owns MotherJourney, focusing on training perinatal professionals on integrative and holistic information regarding pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. She has her degree in Maternal Child Health: Lactation Consulting and is an internationally board certified lactation consultant. As the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever, original Editor of the CAPPA Lactation Educator Manual, and contributing author to Round the Circle: Doulas Talk About Themselves, she loves to blend today’s recent scientific findings with the mind/body/spirit wisdom. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for nearly three decades and has two wonderful grown sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences. She believes that the journey into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated.
Topic: Epigenetics and Breastfeeding: The Potential Longterm Impact of Breastmilk - [View Abstract]
Topic: Hold the Phone! Diet Does Matter During Breastfeeding: Implication of Diet on Fatty Acid Composition and Other Nutrients - [View Abstract]
Topic: Postpartum Mood Disorders, Breastfeeding and the Epigenetic Links from Past Into Future - [View Abstract]
Topic: Talk To Me: How Breastmilk Acts as a Communication and Gene Expression Tool Between Mother and Child - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Milk Sharing Conundrum - The Grey Area Between Scope and Need - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Placenta and Breastmilk-Unraveling the Mysterious World of the Intelligent Organs that Protect our Babies - [View Abstract]
Topic: Understanding Zika and Lyme and Breastfeeding - [View Abstract]
Topic: Unraveling the Mysteries of Human Milk: The Fascinating Role of Neohormones, Epigenetics, the Microbiome and More! - [View Abstract]
Breastmilk has long been understood to be a pathway towards long-term health for both mother and child. The specific mechanisms for how this communication works has long been studied and today many researchers believe that messenger RNAs and stem cells contribute in many ways to appropriate developmental pathways for the baby and cause gene activation that promotes health for life. mRNA in breastmilk can also be influenced by the time of day and even the timing of the babies delivery, becoming adaptive for the baby’s unique needs. Not only do these messenger RNA communicate important genetic information to the baby via breastmilk, changes in the mothers body via mRNA occur during lactation responding to a new “mothering” focus during the period of lactation. This may impact the mother’s postpartum mental states, adaptation to stress, and changes in fatty acids. This presentation highlights some of the fascinating studies that demonstrate the myriad of ways that stem cells and mRNA during lactation become the ultimate communicators, affecting change for years to come.
View Details / Enroll
Dr. Fayrouz Essawy, pediatrician, neonatology consultant, an international board-certified lactation consultant, Neonatology Egyptian fellowship trainer, a baby friendly hospital initiative coordinator and associate alumni, Harvard Medical School Harvard Graduate of Training Of Trainer program 2020. Harvard Graduate of Egypt Clinical Scholars Research Training (CSRT) program 2021. Member of the Egyptian Society of Pediatrics Member of the Egyptian Lactation Consultants Association (ELCA) Member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) Member of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA).
Amal Aly Roshdy Hassan Eltawil is a graduate of Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, class of 1986 who obtained Masters of Pediatrics in 1992 from Faculty of Medicine, Cairo university, and Doctorate of Pediatrics from Al Azhar university in 2002. Amal became an IBCLC in 2003. Since 2004 she has been providing a pre-exam course for the Egyptian Lactation Consultants' Association of which she is a board member, treasurer and education coordinator. She is also a member of the Advisory committee of IBFAN Arab world since 2012. Amal is a member of ILCA since 2008 and a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) since 2009. She became a fellow and Board member of ABM in 2021.
Breast milk can appear in many different colors. Most of the time these colour variations are normal, but sometimes they are an indicator of disease and it's important for care providers to know the difference. The presence of an unusual milk color, especially with colostrum, may also be a barrier to exclusive breastfeeding as it can be worrying for parents. This presentation will examine some of the various colours of breastmilk such as blood-stained, blue, and bluish-green, pink and brownish. Case studies will help identify the causes of these colour variations and when to consider underlying disease.
Unraveling the Mysteries of Human Milk: The Fascinating Role of Neohormones, Epigenetics, the Microbiome and More!
Laurel Wilson, IBCLC, CLE, CCCE, CLD is a TEDx and international speaker, author, pregnancy and lactation expert, and consultant. She served as the Executive Director of Lactation Programs for CAPPA, the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association for 16 years and now is on the Senior Advisor Board. She served on the Board of Directors for the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2016-2019. She also is on the Advisory Board for InJoy Health. She owns MotherJourney, focusing on training perinatal professionals on integrative and holistic information regarding pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. She has her degree in Maternal Child Health: Lactation Consulting and is an internationally board certified lactation consultant. As the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever, original Editor of the CAPPA Lactation Educator Manual, and contributing author to Round the Circle: Doulas Talk About Themselves, she loves to blend today’s recent scientific findings with the mind/body/spirit wisdom. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for nearly three decades and has two wonderful grown sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences. She believes that the journey into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated.
Topic: Epigenetics and Breastfeeding: The Potential Longterm Impact of Breastmilk - [View Abstract]
Topic: Hold the Phone! Diet Does Matter During Breastfeeding: Implication of Diet on Fatty Acid Composition and Other Nutrients - [View Abstract]
Topic: Postpartum Mood Disorders, Breastfeeding and the Epigenetic Links from Past Into Future - [View Abstract]
Topic: Talk To Me: How Breastmilk Acts as a Communication and Gene Expression Tool Between Mother and Child - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Milk Sharing Conundrum - The Grey Area Between Scope and Need - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Placenta and Breastmilk-Unraveling the Mysterious World of the Intelligent Organs that Protect our Babies - [View Abstract]
Topic: Understanding Zika and Lyme and Breastfeeding - [View Abstract]
Topic: Unraveling the Mysteries of Human Milk: The Fascinating Role of Neohormones, Epigenetics, the Microbiome and More! - [View Abstract]
As humans evolved, the milk specific to nourishing, protecting, and developing their babies went through an incredible transformation. The unique demands of having placentas, growing large brains, and making milk for infants that required rapid maturation post-delivery led to a unique set of neohormones. Neohormones not only facilitate reproduction in the mammal, but they direct the development of mammary tissue and are a significant component of human milk. Neohormones interact with the epigenome and microbiome, targeting certain genes to lead to reproductive success for the mammal. Human milk prepares the infant’s epigenome and microbiome for long-term health and adaptation to the environment. Learn about these fascinating components in human milk and the extraordinary role they play in human development.
View Details / Enroll
Virus Killing by White Blood Cells in Breast Milk: How Breastfeeding Is Protective Against HIV
Rebecca LR Powell, PhD, CLC is an Assistant Professor in the department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Currently Dr. Powell is analyzing the phagocytosis responses of various cell types to better understand the effects of phagocytosis receptor profiles and the impact of antibody specificity on the elicitation of biologic function. Additionally, Dr. Powell is studying the contribution of breast milk leukocytes to the relatively low rate of HIV transmission in infants exclusively breastfed by their HIV-infected mothers. She received her PhD in Microbiology from the Sackler Institute, New York University School of Medicine, and her CLC from the Healthy Children Project.
Unless access to clean water and appropriate infant formula is reliable, the World Health Organization does not recommend HIV-infected mothers stop breastfeeding. Remarkably, only about 15% of babies exclusively breastfed by their HIV-infected mothers become infected with HIV. This suggests that although breast milk is a vehicle for HIV transmission, the milk itself exhibits a strong protective effect against infection. Breastfed babies ingest 100,000 - 100,000,000 maternal cells every day via breast milk; what remains largely unclear is the contribution of these cells to the milk’s anti-viral qualities. A large study has been undertaken to isolate cells from human milk in order to measure the ability of these cells to engulf and destroy HIV by a mechanism known as phagocytosis. Over 50 samples of breast milk obtained from healthy women have been analyzed. Phagocytosis of HIV was detected in all samples. Activity did not appear to correlate with stage of lactation. Various cell types known for phagocytic capacity were identified and measured, including granulocytes, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. All samples exhibited strong granulocyte activity.These data further demonstrate that phagocytosis of HIV by immune cells from breast milk can be measured. This information will be critical for design of therapeutic vaccines capable of reducing the likelihood of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in areas where breastfeeding is essential.
View Details / Enroll
View Details / Enroll
