Human Milk Banks Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for Human Milk Banks for Lactation & Breastfeeding professional training. These Human Milk Banks online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This Human Milk Banks education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Mihaela Nita- MD, IBCLC, medical doctor (since 2007), specialized in pediatrics and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (since 2011), worked mainly to develop the profession of IBCLC in Romania. Organizer of the first IBCLC Day in Romania, is the co-founder and president of Romanian Lactation Consultant Association, member of ELACTA. Active in the field of lactation, organizing conferences, events, support groups, 90 hours training courses, CERPs accredited courses, fundraising events. On behalf of the Romanian Lactation Consultant Association, Mihaela Nita started the first volunteer work in the country, in the NICU of Marie Curie Emergency Children Hospital in Bucharest that led to the idea of implementing a human milk bank. Mihaela is passionate about training, advocating for the IBCLCs role and making a change for mothers, society and medical system in the field of lactation.
Romania is one of the European countries with a very low breastfeeding rate. The emergence of IBCLCs in the past 2 decades helped in improving mothers access to lactation professionals. Starting from 2013 with the first celebration of IBCLC Day, conferences and courses, the awareness of a new profession raise.
Although in Europe there are more than 200 human milk banks, Romania does not have one.
The limitations in the process of implementing a human milk bank in the NICU, the gap of legislation, the support of the civic society and 2 cases are discussed in the presentation.
View Details / Enroll
Getting Milk to Babies: Social, medical, economic and commercial forces
Naomi Bar-Yam, PhD, ACSW, has been working in maternal and child health for over 30 years as an educator, researcher, advocate, and writer. She is the immediate past president of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) and the founding director of Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast, which provides safe donor milk to hospitals and families throughout the northeastern US. An expert on access to perinatal health care and policies that support breastfeeding, she has been a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control (on a panel that created “The CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions”), to the United States Breastfeeding Committee (developing an issue paper addressed to CEOs and legislators on breastfeeding and the workplace), and to the March of Dimes (developing educational material for women and families who are medically and socially vulnerable to high-risk pregnancy). She also developed a curriculum for hospital personnel about combining breastfeeding with their work. She reviews articles submitted to the Journal of Human Lactation, Breastfeeding Medicine, and other publications related to breastfeeding, milk banking, and access to perinatal child care. As Executive Director of Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast, she is thoroughly versed in the technical, procedural, and ethical aspects of milk banking. She often speaks at professional conferences, hospital staff trainings, and grand rounds about milk banking and breastfeeding policies.
Topic: Ethical Concerns in Human Milk Exchange - [View Abstract]
Topic: Getting Milk to Babies: Social, medical, economic and commercial forces - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Whys and Hows of Using Banked Donor Milk - [View Abstract]
Successful infant feeding is crucial to the survival of babies and the human race. Throughout history and across the world, societies have had to address alternatives to maternal breastfeeding. We will present an overview of the history of infant feeding, including the forces involved in the decline of breastfeeding and wet nursing and the rise of “scientific” infant feeding, commercial infant formulas and milk banking. We will also define and discuss milk kinship practiced in Islam and throughout the Far East and Middle East. We will cover as well the forces and organizations involved in the rise of breastfeeding, milk sharing, and milk banking over the last 2-3 decades, and the social, economic and commercial forces impacting infant feeding today. We will conclude with a discussion of how history can help us understand and influence future trends.
Anna has been working as a midwife since 2009. From the very beginning of her studies she has been fascinated with breastfeeding. During her studies for her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Midwifery, her main area of interest was promotion and support for breastfeeding among women. Anna's interest in breastfeeding turned into a passion that led her to pursue the Polish Certification of Lactation Consultant and she is working toward certification as an IBCLC. She opened a private practice and a support group for local women in Krakow (cracko). Anna’s Interest and passion for lactation and breastfeeding have deepened during her current PhD studies. She is a PhD candidate in 2018 at University Medical College and is the coordinator of the Krakow Human Milk Bank.
Her scientific area of expertise: change in milk composition (macronutrients), human microbiota during pregnancy, lactation as well as tandem breastfeeding. Her research is carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology. Anna is the author of many lectures and workshops for students of midwifery and medicine in area of breastfeeding, lactation and the variation of composition of human milk. Since 2016 she has been popularizing the science of human lactation in Poland and she is always finding new ways to promote and support breastfeeding women. In her spare time she practices meditation, yin yoga and is learning how to dance rock and roll.
Topic: Rusty Pipe Syndrome: A Case Report From Poland - [View Abstract]
Although Human Milk Banks are already more than 100 years in the world in Poland they are pretty new and young institution. History of breast milk sharing is well known, in times of war in Polish women sell milk on food market. Today we have a professional Human Milk Banks with international standards and very engaged in scientific work. Human Milk Banks working as non-profit institution, but from this year 2017 our government will pay and support all hospitals in Poland which feed premature babies and full time newborns - human milk (biological mother or from Human Milk Bank). This presentation will show the history of our banks, inception steps, functioning, obtaining Donors Mothers, cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the national health service in Poland.
Increasing Access to Parental Breast Milk During Incarceration: The Role of the Human Milk Bank
Carrie Cohen, MA, MS, IBCLC in an instructor with the University Studies Department of Portland State University. Her Senior Capstone course, “Current Issues In Pregnancy and Birth” has partnered with the Family Preservation Project of the YWCA of Greater Portland on various projects to support families prenatally through postpartum and beyond while incarcerated. Additionally, she works as a lactation consultant serving families in Oregon and SW Washington in the United States.
Lesley Mondeaux has served as the Executive Director of Northwest Mothers Milk Bank since it opened its doors in 2013. Formerly serving on the board of directors she helped in the effort to bring a nonprofit milk bank to the Pacific Northwest. She is a registered nurse and lactation consultant with over 30 years’ experience working with mothers and babies in labor and delivery, postpartum, and outpatient breastfeeding support. In 2011 she was awarded the Oregon March of Dimes Nurse of the Year in Maternal-Child Health. She is active in the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, currently serving as the conference chair and member of the accreditation committee.
A native Oregonian, Lesley lives with her husband of 36 years. She has four amazing children.
Lactation support in US prisons and jails continues to be limited in access and scope. Up to the COVID pandemic, the rate of women incarcerated in the US rose by 800% since the 1980s. Approximately 60-80% of these women are the parent of a minor, many the primary caregiver of their child/children. Every year, approximately 10% of women entering custody are pregnant. Native American, Black/African American and women of lower educational attainment and socioeconomic standing are also overrepresented in American prisons, perpetuating cycles of intergenerational trauma and health disparities.
Enabling mothers/lactating parents to breast-feed or express milk for their infants while in custody has the potential to reduce the harm associated with infant-parent separation. Mothers have expressed positive mental health impacts from the act of milk expression and knowing their milk was reaching their infants. The availability of lactation support can help mothers manage breast health throughout the postpartum period. Infants maintain connection with their parent, while receiving all the benefits human milk brings.
Milk Banks can play a unique role in their ability to support infants, parents-in-custody and caregivers through their expertise in human milk handling, transportation and storage. Our presentation will highlight the Expressions of Care program of the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank: to provide a potential model of how organizations might further expand infant access to human milk within this important and often-overlooked population.
Dr Natalie Shenker is a former surgeon, scientist, and the cofounder of the Human Milk Foundation, which aims to ensure more babies are fed with human milk. As well as supporting a range of educational and research studies, the HMF aims to ensure assured access to screened donor milk through a network of human milk banks based on the cost-effective innovative model of the Hearts Milk Bank (HMB). Milk banks provide screened breastmilk to premature babies whose own mothers need time to establish breastfeeding, protecting them from a range of life-threatening complications and supporting the mother to breastfeed. The HMB has been operating in the UK for 18 months, and has supported neonatal units as well as families in the community where breastfeeding is impossible or taking time to establish.
Evolution has created human milk as a way to protect the baby postnatally, patterning the immune system and microbiome, and providing diverse developmental cues for each organ system to develop normally. Milk also provides nutrition. When screened donated human milk (DHM) is available, mothers facing the most stressful circumstances of having an ill premature baby tend to have high chances of establishing breastfeeding. If donor milk is used appropriately as a bridge to lactation, they are less likely to perceive that their bodies have failed. The work of the Hearts Milk Bank over 18 months have laid the foundation for a UK-centred drive to upscale milk bank capacity, facilitate research to determine the optimal use of donor milk, and support a shift in perception about the role of human milk, underpinned by the latest science.
View Details / Enroll
