GOLD Learning Speakers

Haaritha Boltman-Binkowski completed her B. Cur (Cum Laude) at the University of the Western Cape in 2003. She then gained clinical experience in both private and government institutions in the labour ward. She completed her Masters degree in Advanced Midwifery in 2005. In 2007 she started working as a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape. During the 13 years of lecturing, she has lectured various disciplines, including General Nursing, Midwifery, Advanced Midwifery, Neonatal Nursing, Research Methods, and Gender Based Violence as a Public Health Issue. She has co-ordinated both theory and clinical for many of the modules and year levels taught. Since 2015, Haaritha has been co-ordinating and teaching the Masters in Nursing: Advanced Midwifery and Neonatal Nursing. Haaritha is passionate about collaboration and has organised two international collaborative visits in 2019 from different institutions in Belgium (UC Leuven and VIVES), and has been involved with NEPAD efforts since 2012. In 2019 she graduated with another Masters degree in Nursing Education (Cum Laude). Her curriculum development experience covers micro aspects as well as developing the new graduate programme in Midwifery. Her clinical and teaching experience is as varied as her research interests but her focus areas are: maternal and child health, evidence-based practice, postpartum haemorrhage, teaching and learning and decolonisation.

Dr. Anisa has been working as a Consultant Pediatrician for 11 years & an IBCLC for 12 years. Dr. Anisa has a strong belief that breastfeeding saves lives of infants & young children. In order to ensure improvement of the practice of exclusive breastfeeding rate in Malaysia, she established an ambulatory care center with breastfeeding consultation services for the residents in Johor (state) & founded a networking platform for home visit counselling session by trained lactation counsellors that is BCNP (Breastfeeding Counselors Networking Program) since January 2016. Apart from above mentioned, Dr. Anisa is a mother of 4 sons with various breastfeeding experiences, blending with knowledge gained from managing cases in clinic, conferences & readings, she is confident to give lectures related to children health & lactation at national level and internationally. As fractional pediatric lecturer in Monash University Malaysia, she teaches medical students the importance and benefits of breastfeeding to our children & maternal health with hope that future young doctors will support, protect & promote breastfeeding in their services. Since 2009, Dr. Anisa has been a National BFHI Auditor, National lactation center fascilitator, trainer & speaker, and has published 2 books on breastfeeding - Induced lactation guideline & breastfeeding comic (Dr Super Pot Pet). Her deep interest in induce lactation program leads her to present this topic for GOLD Lactation.

Hannah Dahlen is a Professor of Midwifery in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). She is also the Higher Degree Research Director. Hannah has had national and international success with grants. Hannah has published more than 120 papers and has given papers at over 500 conferences and seminars with half of these being invited keynote addresses. Hannah has strong international collaborations. She is co-founder of the international research collaboration EPIC (Epigenetic Impact of Childbirth). In November 2012 she was named in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 “people who change our city for the better”. She was named as one of the leading “science and knowledge thinkers” for 2012 due to her research and public profile. Hannah has a strong profile in the profession of midwifery. She is a past National President of the Australian College of Midwives and she sits on several peak National and State committees. Hannah currently supervises 11 higher degree students, mostly investigating women’s birth choices. Hannah is an endorsed Eligible Midwife working in a private midwifery group practice Midwives@Sydney and Beyond in NSW.

My formal training as a midwife was obtained at Columbia University in 1979, however it was the hundreds of women and families who taught me the art, compassion and knowing that is required to be “ a midwife” Over the years, I provided care to women in variety of clinical settings. I have taught and precepted midwifery students in association with several educational programs, most recently Frontier nursing university. Throughout years of academia and clinical practice, I was driven to understand why some women developed life threatening obstetrical complications while others with risky life styles had problem free pregnancies and good outcomes. My doctoral focus on pre and perinatal psychology and the associated disciplines of epigenetics, embryology, neurobiology and intergenerational hereditary transmission has led me to understand the importance of a holistic approach to improve maternal wellbeing as means to improve perinatal outcomes during the preconception period. This presentation will share this science and protocols with my audience.

Heather is a Métis Midwife from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She studied midwifery at Laurentian University, focusing on rural and remote practice. Heather practiced midwifery at the Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto for two years before moving to Hay River, Northwest Territories to establish a Midwife practice and help return birthing services to the community. Heather is now living and working in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and is president of the Midwives Association of the Northwest Territories and is a Core Leader of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives.

Educator with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA). She has a particular interest in breastfeeding and Down syndrome after her son was born with Down syndrome in 2014. Her journey of breastfeeding her son included a long inpatient hospitalization stay due to his treatment for cancer. She has worked in disability services for over 20 years including community learning disability nursing in the UK, supporting GPs to manage the heath needs of people with complex health conditions and intellectual disability, medical undergraduate education in intellectual disability and currently works in general practice as a Practice Disability Nurse. Heather facilitates Breastfeeding Education Classes to expectant parents, is a Trainer & Assessor in ABA’s training team and provides guidance and contributes to publications on breastfeeding a baby with Down syndrome.

Heather is a Registered Midwife and Physiotherapist, passionate about improving women’s health. She is completing PhD studies at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS): her research focus is women’s ‘pelvic floor health’ in the workforce. Heather’s study forms part of an Australian Research Council and NSW Nurses and Midwives Association funded project: Fit for the Future, investigating the health of nurses and midwives. She has been awarded funding from the Australian Bladder Foundation and has authored several peer-reviewed publications: https://www.uts.edu.au/staff/heather.pierce

Heather lectured at UTS in the Bachelor of Midwifery program (2007- 2016) and worked with the Continence Foundation of Australia and the Australian College of Midwives on the ELearning course: Continence promotion: the importance of the midwife. She is current Chief Australian Delegate to the International Organization for Physiotherapists in Women’s Health, and immediate past National Chair of Continence and Women’s Health Physiotherapy Australia (2014 - 2016).

Heidi Lam is a private practice IBCLC and La Leche League Leader in Hong Kong. She tandem nurse her two daughters and have more then 8 years of breastfeeding experience. She was accredited as La Leche League Leader in 2009. In 2010, to she was awarded the Trudi Szallasi Memorial Scholarship from Health-e-learning.com to complete a one year course on lactation medicine. In 2011, she was qualified as International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Her job focus mainly on home visits to clients and running breastfeeding classes. Heidi is also active in promoting breastfeeding and was often interviewed by parenting magazines and other media in Hong Kong. Heidi was a Hong Kong delegate to spoke at the Susuibu.com International Lactation Conference 2010 in Malaysia. She also speaks regularly at local breastfeeding support groups.

Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC is Joint Coordinator of the UK Steering Group of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). In 2017 she and Clare Meynell IBCLC jointly received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Breastfeeding from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain (LCGB), for leading the UK’s first WBTi assessment of infant feeding policies and programmes.

Helen is an international speaker on ethics and conflicts of interest. She represents La Leche League of Great Britain on the UK Baby Feeding Law Group, which works to bring the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes into UK law. She is also Policy and Advocacy Lead for Lactation Consultants of Great Britain, and previously co-chaired LCGB’s Communications Team.

Helen’s background in anthropology and human evolution has influenced her interest in how breastfeeding, and the way we nurture our babies, are influenced by both human biology and culture.

Her current advocacy focus is the need for strong policies to protect infant feeding in emergencies. She currently serves on the Advisory Panel for a London Food Resilience research project with Oxford University.

In her spare time, she can be found sculling on the River Thames.

Helen Ball trained in Human Biology and Biological Anthropology, obtaining her PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1992. She established the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab at Durham University in 2000, was promoted to Professor in 2007 and served as Head of the Anthropology Department 2013-2016.

Her research examines the sleep ecology of infants and their parents including attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioral and physiological monitoring of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural sleep preferences and biological sleep needs. She conducts research in hospitals and the community and contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care.

In 2016 she was appointed as Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Lullaby Trust, and in 2018 Durham University received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education for Helen’s research and outreach work. She is a Board Member of ISPID (the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths) and directs the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre (DISC) and Baby Sleep Information Source (Basis).

Helene Johns has a clinical midwifery background and a keen interest in women's experience of birth and early parenting. She is a volunteer counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association. Working as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse in Melbourne and as a Midwife in Well Women’s Services at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, she is involved in the provision of advocacy, advice, support and referral in both roles, in the latter through the state-wide Women’s Health Information Centre. Helene’s clinical roles involve the provision of Pap tests and sexual health screening for well women and De-Infibulation for women who have experienced female circumcision. Helene has a particular interest in breastfeeding influences and outcomes which has led to her involvement in the Mothers and Infants Lactation Cohort (MILC) study. She is a PhD candidate at The Judith Lumley Centre (formerly Mother and Child Health Research), La Trobe University.

Hope became an IBCLC in 2017, completed her PhD in nutritional biochemistry in 2018, and became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in 2020. In 2022, she completed the FARE Certificate of Training in Pediatric Food Allergy in order to provide comprehensive care to breastfeeding and formula feeding families struggling with food allergies. In addition to owning and operating Hope Feeds Babies in Rock Hill, SC, Hope is employed full time at Winthrop University as an Assistant Professor and the Graduate Program Director in the Department of Human Nutrition. At Winthrop, Hope runs a research lab that focuses on helping mothers to reach their infant feeding goals, improving access to human milk, and analyzing the nutritional content of human milk.