Lactation & Breastfeeding Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Decalie is a Registered nurse/midwife with over 40 years of experience collectively working as an IBCLC in a clinical roles within Primary Care and Community Health. Currently working as a Child & Family Health Clinical Nurse Specialist 2 in busy Community of the Blue Mountains, NSW Australia. She supports health professionals and parents with education of lactation/infant feeding/settling and behavioural issues for infants and children 0 to 5 years of age as a clinical specialist. A current BFHI Assessor. Has shared her extensive clinical experience in workshops at many ILCA, LCANZ and ABA conferences over the years. Her passion in support for mothers and babies.

Decalie has volunteered for Board of Director for the Australian Lactation Consultants Association (ALCA) 7 years on the ILCA International Lactation Consultant Association, last 2 years as President. On the Inaugural World Trends Initiative WBTI AUS Core group. Advisory committee for International Childbirth Education Ass. ICEA. World Health Organisation working group for revision of BFHI Education package, WABA advisory group. ILCA Nominations committee chair, IBCLC Care award Co chair.

Enjoying the next level of parenting being Mimi to her 3 year old grandson Cole.

As a Pediatrician and an IBCLC, Shacchee is attracted to ways of promoting health and well-being for families. She transitioned to lactation support 14 years ago after her first daughter was born, realising the felt need for skilled Lactation Support in her community.

She works at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India, and heads a Lactation team, supporting families in their antenatal, intra-natal and postnatal periods. She also trains medical and paramedical staff in skilled lactation support.

She is the current President and Executive Team member of ALPI (Association of Lactation Professionals India). She works as a clinical instructor, helping train future lactation professionals in various aspects of Skills, Ethics, Scope of Practise and Communication. She co-ordinates between Public and Private healthcare bodies to provide equitable lactation support across her community.

She is an advocate of teamwork in supporting dyads with special lactation challenges (oral restrictions/ NICU babies etc) and has been working to bring experts from different fields together for comprehensive lactation support. Working with different teams locally and nationally allowed her to achieve the goal of making, "skilled lactation support a reality in India."

Married to Vipul, they have two super girls Navya (14) and Ayana(11).

Patricia Díaz L., Woman passionate about accompanying Women and Families through their Conscious and Connected gestational, birthing and parenting journeys. She is a trained Pediatrician, IBCLC and Doula. Graduated as a Surgeon physician and Pediatric Specialist from the Central University of Venezuela, at the main Children’s Hospital of the country; JM de los Ríos. From her formative years, she fell in love with the dynamic process of Breastfeeding and the unique physical, nutritional, immunological, qualities of it, along with the transformative emotional and spiritual bond that formed between the new parents and their baby: "Being a witness to that first magical and intimate human contact, is one of the most wonderful sensations in the world; I have ever experienced”. Dr. Patricia Díaz graduated as Promoter and Consultant of the Lactation Center ""Mi Gota de Leche” ( “ My Drop of Milk” ) at the Hospital J.M. de los Ríos, with the endorsement of UNICEF. She was part of the First Cohort of Diplomats in Breastfeeding and Complementary Feeding Practices, of the Faculty of Medicine, at the Central University of Venezuela. Member of the American Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA). Trained as a Doula, at the Auroramadre Center in Venezuela. National and International speaker. With more than a decade of experience, Patricia, strongly advocates for Human Lactation Education, at her private practice in Venezuela, where she currently is the Chief of Pediatrics at La Trinidad Medical Teaching Center. At this center, she has co-designed the Respectful Birthing Protocol (to honor the Sacred Hour, Skin to Skin and Rooming in; most recently updated alongside Neonatology Department, to adjust it for COVID19 context). Also through her social media platform @PediatríaAutana (Tree of Life), she educates, advocates for Breastfeeding families and designs educational tools for Parents and Caregivers, Families and Teachers, in the most innovative formats, adjusted to their needs, concerning topics associated with Prenatal Prolactation Prep, Human Lactation, Parenting, Growth and Neurodevelopment, Pediatrics.

Andrea Herron, is one of the first and longest continuous certified pediatric nurse practitioners in the United States. After more than 40 years working with breastfeeding mothers and their babies and teaching parenting classes, she is among one of the most experienced consultant in the field of lactation. Regardless of the issue or concern, Andrea has guided thousands of mothers to meet their breastfeeding and early parenting goals through support groups, lactation consultations, and childrearing education. After receiving a Master's in pediatric nursing from UCLA, Andrea became an early pioneer in the back-to-breastfeeding movement, and educated health professionals as an instructor in the UCLA lactation educator course, all over the United States. Her private lactation practice, Growing with Baby in San Luis Obispo, California, was used as the national model for private practices by Women Infant and Children (WIC), the federally funded health and nutrition program. One of her favorite and most popular topics she teaches through her Growing with Baby parenting groups is, Understanding Your Infant’s Temperament. This topic and many of the other topics she teaches are included in her newly released book, Suckle, Sleep, Thrive: Breastfeeding Success Through Understanding Your Baby’s Cues. Co-written with Lisa Rizzo.

Andrea has been married to Larry Herron, an orthopedic spine surgeon, for over 35 years. They are the proud parents of a grown son, two Labradors, a cat, and parrot. The couple reside in Shell Beach, California.

Dipti Shah is a Mother Support Group Leader - Lactation Counsellor since 1998 & Lactation Consultant since 2010. She was trained by BPNI Maharashtra Faculty & has been providing Lactation Counselling services in multiple Institutional Hospitals & small maternity homes in Mumbai for over 2 decades. She has wide experience in community advocacy & Individual Counselling in indoor, OPD, home and online settings. She is senior trainer for BPNI Maharashtra & participated as faculty in over 100 workshops in Seven States of India & for 5 batches of ’96 hrs of Lactation Specific Education’ for IBLCE preparation (2010-2021). She mentored many Lactation counsellors and consultants. She is a BFHI Assessor since 2001 & has trained two groups of ‘Traditional Massage Women’ in basics of infant feeding and childcare. She has extensively contributed to multiple training modules, presentations & videos for BPNI Maharashtra & Maharashtra Government & UNICEF. She is also office coordinator of BPNI Maharashtra since 2004. She participated in Expanded Global Breastfeeding Partners Meeting (GBPM) of WABA at Penang, Malaysia in 2010. She was felicitated with ‘Dr N.B. Kumta Award’ in 2016. She exclusively breastfed her son for 6 months and continued well into 2nd year.

Ruth Patterson is Cloud Nine's P I O N E E R & most sought Lactation Specialist with 32 years of rich experience. Ruth is currently practicing at Jayanagar C9, Bangalore-India and a visiting Lactation Consultant with 8 other Cloud Nine branches locally, while als heading the 22 Pan India Cloud Nine Hospitals as the Manager Lactation. Ruth's primary role is to ensure C9 nurses complete level 1 and level 2 LSTP course (Lactation Skilled Training Program). Ruth is acclaimed for the use of Dynamic Taping (only available at Jayanagar C9) that arrests/prevents breast surgery/abscess. This Dynamic Taping practice, alongside, a Gynecologist, Pediatrician and Physiotherapist at Cloud Nine, is now under patent stage.

Ruth's 30+ years of rich experience includes maternity, allied health and nursing care, both in rural and urban sector in India & Abroad. With Exclusive 17 years of experience in Lactation services, Ruth has acquired immense practical knowledge in the last decade to identify most critical disorders of mother and babies during breastfeeding stage. Ruth is acclaimed to have expertise in a lesser-known art of re-lactation and induced lactation.

Ruth is a well sought out person for patient hearing and provides her expert comments in News columns/Media and also delivers guest lectures globally.

Marcda Hilaire immigrated from Haiti to the United States in 1995. At a very young age, she served as a trainee in the biomedical program now known as the STEM PREP program. She received a Bachelor’s in Biology from Temple University and a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Maternal & Child Health from University of South Florida. Having worked in breastfeeding since 2012, Ms. Hilaire recently earned her IBCLC in June 2017. Ms. Hilaire currently serves as a breastfeeding coordinator in Palm Beach County, is a member of the Palm Beach County Breastfeeding Coalition and corresponding secretary for the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition. She serves as a member of the Health Ministry at Philadelphia Church of the Newborns. Ms. Hilaire and her husband have two children, one of whom is a currently breastfeeding 9 month old. She enjoys poetry, singing, and writing.

Lina Mazzoni is a Lactation Consultant, IBCLC with a Bachelors Degree in Speech and Language Therapy. Since 2013 she has been working primarily with children and specialized in the treatment of sucking, swallowing and feeding disorders. In 2019 she became a Lactation Consultant to be able to work equivalent with the children and the mother. As a working mom she worked part time as a Lactation Consultant in a hospital in Hamburg, started her own privat practice in 2019 and since october 2021 she works exclusively in her private practice as a lactation consultant and SLT. She also works as an Instructor in lactation education and further education regarding feeding developement and disorders . Lina has two children and lives with them and her husband in Hamburg, Germany.

Alyssa has been helping parents and babies with breastfeeding since 2002, first as a La Leche League Leader and since 2009 as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

Alyssa works in private practice serving clients worldwide, primarily through telehealth. She is the author of Breastfeeding Without Birthing: A Breastfeeding Guide for Mothers Through Adoption, Surrogacy, and Other Special Circumstances and a professional supplement to the book, The Breastfeeding Without Birthing Professional Pack online training.

Alyssa has authored articles for The Journal of Human Lactation: The Three Step Framework for Inducing Lactation and Successful Co-Lactation by a Queer Couple: A Case Study. She has also authored articles for La Leche League’s Leader Today and Breastfeeding Today magazines, and Adoptive Families magazine. She is an international speaker on the topics of inducing lactation, relactation, and other related topics. Alyssa is the proud mother of three breastfed children, two by birth and one by adoption. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Jake Marcus, J.D., is the nation’s foremost expert on breastfeeding law. Formerly Staff Attorney at a non-profit assisting survivors of domestic violence, her current private practice focuses on small businesses (including the business issues of health care practitioners such as IBCLCs and midwives) and healthcare. She was Politics Editor at Mothering magazine until it ceased publication in April of 2011. She was a member of the Legal Advisory Council to La Leche League International. She created and maintains BreastfeedingLaw.com.

Joy MacTavish, MA, IBCLC, RLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and certified Holistic Sleep Coach focusing on the intersections of infant feeding, sleep, and family well-being. Through her business, Sound Beginnings, she provides compassionate and evidence-based support to families in the greater Seattle area, and virtually everywhere else. She entered the perinatal field in 2007 as birth and postpartum doula, and childbirth and parenting educator. Joy holds a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies, graduate certificate in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and two Bachelors degrees from the University of Washington. She enjoys combining her academic background, analytical skills, and passion for social justice into her personal and professional endeavors. Joy serves as an Advisory Committee Member and guest speaker for the GOLD Lactation Academy. When not working or learning, she can be found homeschooling, building LEGO with her children, or dreaming up her next big adventure.