Breastfeeding Strategies for the Preterm Infant Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Alice Farrow is an IBCLC, writer, speaker, and infant feeding and health equity advocate. Parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, Alice has worked extensively, since 2006, with parents, parent organisations, cleft teams health providers and lactation specialists in order to increase awareness of the specific challenges faced by cleft affected infants and their families and to imprve access to adequate lactation support for this community.

Currently based in Rome, Italy, Alice advocates for, and teaches regularly on, the topic of breastfeeding/chestfeeding with an oral cleft via presentations, courses, articles, booklets and handouts and supports parents and professionals wordwide via their Cleft Lip and Palate Breastfeeding website and associated online support group, and in person and distance consultations.

Kate White is and award-winning craniosacral and massage therapist, prenatal and early childhood educator. She is trained in somatic therapies, prenatal and perinatal health, lactation, brain development, infant mental health, and has specialized in mother-baby dyad care using somatic prevention and trauma healing approaches for nearly 20 years. She is a mother of two children, holds a BA and MA in Communication, is a Registered Craniosacral Therapist in the Biodynamic Craniosacral method and a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Her work combines somatic therapy with brain development to help give families with babies and small children the best possible start. She is Founding Director of Education for the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health from 2013 – 2018 where she managed a large online educational program for professionals. She currently co-directs this program, administering an online program for parents and parent professionals, runs a private practice and offers her own seminars through the Center for Prenatal and Perinatal Programs, ppncenter.com.

Kathie, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of CT School of Medicine, is a neonatologist, member of the Human Milk Research Center at CT Children’s Medical Center, Hartford, CT, and graduated from Cornell University and Cornell University School of Medicine, completing postgraduate training in Pediatrics, Pediatric Nephrology and Neonatology at Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University, Washington DC USA. In the inaugural group of physicians designated “Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine” (FABM), she served twelve years on the ABM Board of Directors, chaired the Protocol committee, and chaired the United States Breastfeeding Committee 2013-14. Elected to the International Lactation Consultant Association Board July 2014-17, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding, serves as the AAP Connecticut Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinator since 2000, and Chairs the Baby-Friendly USA NICU Initiative. Initially founding Medical Director of the New England Mother's Milk Bank she is currently co-Medical Director of the Mothers' Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes and has authored many chapters, monographs, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and ABM protocols. Her research centers on breastfeeding and the use of human milk in the NICU, cup feeding, donor milk/donor milk banking, the Baby-Friendly NICU, global maternal-child issues and the education of medical professionals. Lecturing extensively in the United States and abroad, she resides in Glastonbury, CT, her greatest accomplishment her 4 amazing young adults, 19 to 29 years of age.

Dr. Joana Torres received her medical degree from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and completed her fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Hospital Center of Coimbra, Portugal. She spent 3 years at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA working on research projects in the field of IBD. She is currently working in Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, Loures, Portugal as a Gastroenterology Assistant and she is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Mount Sinai, NY. She is the President of the Scientific Committee of the Portuguese IBD Group and an active member of the European Crohn and Colitis Guideline committee (GuiCom). Her research focuses on populations at risk for developing inflammatory bowel disease with the goal of better understanding events taking place before the disease is diagnosed.

Amber Valentine is a Speech-Language Pathologist who graduated from the University of Kentucky with her MS in Communication Disorders. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, as well as a Certified Neonatal Therapist (CNT). She worked for Baptist Health Systems, Inc for 8 years before moving to Florida where she worked for Wolfsons Children’s Hospital and Mayo Florida. She is now back in Kentucky working for Baptist Health Lexington. She has experience in adults and pediatrics with feeding and swallowing difficulties including: bedside swallow evaluations, Modified Barium Swallow studies, FEES, and pediatric feeding evaluations including NICU. She has experience with head and neck cancer patient including evaluation and treatment of swallowing difficulties, PMV use, and voice after total laryngectomy including TEP. She has provided guest lectures for the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Louisville on feeding and swallowing topics. She has presented at the hospital, local, state, national, and international levels on pediatric feeding/swallowing and breastfeeding.

Clinical nurse researcher in the area of breastfeeding preterm infants and skin-to-skin contact at dept. of Neonatology, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet and leader of Knowledge Centre for Breastfeeding Infants with special needs. Member of the Nordic and Quebec Working Group expanding the BFHI for neonatal wards (Neo-BFHI).

Amber Valentine is a Speech-Language Pathologist who graduated from the University of Kentucky with her MS in Communication Disorders. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, as well as a Certified Neonatal Therapist (CNT). She worked for Baptist Health Systems, Inc for 8 years before moving to Florida where she worked for Wolfsons Children’s Hospital and Mayo Florida. She is now back in Kentucky working for Baptist Health Lexington. She has experience in adults and pediatrics with feeding and swallowing difficulties including: bedside swallow evaluations, Modified Barium Swallow studies, FEES, and pediatric feeding evaluations including NICU. She has experience with head and neck cancer patient including evaluation and treatment of swallowing difficulties, PMV use, and voice after total laryngectomy including TEP. She has provided guest lectures for the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Louisville on feeding and swallowing topics. She has presented at the hospital, local, state, national, and international levels on pediatric feeding/swallowing and breastfeeding.

Renée Flacking is Associate Professor and the leader for Reproductive, Infant and Child Health (RICH) at the School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Sweden. Renée has a background as a Paediatric Nurse, having worked in a Neonatal Care Unit for more than 10 years. In 2007, she received her PhD in Medical Science, Uppsala University: Breastfeeding and Becoming a Mother – Influences and Experiences of Mothers of Preterm Infants. In 2009-2010 she undertook her PostDoc, conducting an ethnographic study in neonatal units in Sweden and England focusing on infant feeding and relationality. Renée has published more than 40 articles on neonatal care and is the Editor, together with Professor Fiona Dykes, for the book Ethnographic Research in Maternal and Child Health, Routledge. Renée’s main research interest is in the area of parenting and feeding in families with preterm infants focusing on emotional, relational and socio-cultural influences.

Dr Embleton has worked in neonatal medicine for the past 25 years, completing clinical training and a research doctorate in neonatal nutrition in the UK, and a neonatal fellowship in Vancouver, Canada. He has worked as a Consultant Neonatal Pediatrician in Newcastle, UK since 2002, one of the largest UK neonatal units, caring for sick preterm and term born neonates. He leads a broad portfolio of research focused on nutrition and gut health in preterm infants. Areas of work include determining patterns of early gut microbial colonization, and how these may predict the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and sepsis. He is a project team member of large neonatal feeding trials recruiting >5000 infants in the UK, as well as coordinating mechanistic studies using microbiomic and metabolomic analyses. He chairs the multi-disciplinary UK Neonatal Nutrition Network (N3) and is a member of the Committee of Nutrition for ESPGHAN.

Robin P. Glass, MS, OTR, IBCLC practices occupational therapy at Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle, WA and is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation, at the University of Washington. Her clinical specialty is the treatment of infants, with a strong focus on feeding and swallowing issues. She provides treatment for hospitalized infants including the NICU with a wide range of medical and developmental diagnoses. She is NDT trained and is a 20 year Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Robin has extensive national and international experience speaking about infant feeding.

Robin has received numerous awards including the National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT) 2015 Pioneer Award and the 2018 Nancy Danoff Spirit of Service award from the Breastfeeding Coalition of WA and Nutrition First. Robin has co-authored numerous journal articles as well as the book Feeding and Swallowing Disorders in Infancy: Assessment and Management.