IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Clinical Skills / Education and Communication Focused CERPs - Section VII B
Access CERPs on Clinical Skills / Education and Communication for the IBCLC Detailed Content Outline recertification requirements. On-demand viewing of the latest Clinical Skills / Education and Communication focused IBCLC CERPs at your own pace.

14 Principles We Wish We’d Known at the Beginning; Reflections on 20 Years as IBCLC’s

Cindy Leclerc and Jana Stockham are Registered Nurses and IBCLCs with over 20 years experience helping families get started with breastfeeding. In addition to hands on care, Cindy and Jana use technology to support families through their website (cindyandjana.com), online prenatal breastfeeding classes (simplybreastfeeding.ca) and iPhone app, NuuNest. Cindy is a strong believer in mother-to-mother support, helping to facilitate breastfeeding and postpartum depression support groups. She is intrigued by all things online and actively uses social media to promote breastfeeding. Jana has been trained as a Baby Friendly assessor and helped to coordinate the first Baby Friendly designation in Saskatchewan. She has a passion to help families with new babies and facilitates a group for breastfeeding moms.
Topic: Meeting your breastfeeding goals - [View Abstract]
Topic: Preventing the Plunge: Why the First 2 Weeks are Crucial for Breastfeeding Duration. - [View Abstract]
IBCLC’s begin their career with a baseline of theoretical and practical knowledge. As in every other profession, there is wisdom that can only be learned on the job. IBCLC’s who have worked on the frontlines for over 20 years share principles that will help you to be more effective and compassionate in your practice. They will share actual stories and examples from their work with families, including a few mistakes made along the way. Learn what Cindy & Jana wish they had known when they first became IBCLC’s.

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Kimberly is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution practitioner, Structural Integration practitioner, culture worker, and single mom. She specializes in helping women heal from birth injuries, gynecological procedures and sexual boundary ruptures. She is the author of the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester: Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions and Restoring Your Vitality and Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power and Use It for Good- a feminist nervous system treatise, as well as the newly released Reckoning, co-authored with Stephen Jenkinson. She is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.
Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented therapeutic model that supports the regulation of the autonomic nervous system. Reframe your approach to the fourth trimester by learning how to work with your client’s physiology to promote healing. Learn more about the four domains of health that influence the postpartum experience, the five cross-cultural universal postpartum needs and the five channels of inner and outer experience, as a tool to help clients get out of looping cycles of shame and blame.


Jodine Chase is a public relations and communications consultant specializing in issues and crisis management news analysis. Jodine is a long-time breastfeeding advocate who, as a volunteer, works for many breastfeeding related causes including advocating for the re-establishment of milk banks, amending policies and legislation to protect breastfeeding rights, and appropriate infant and young child feeding during emergencies including the Syrian refugee crisis. Jodine serves on the board of her local breastfeeding advocacy group, the Breastfeeding Action Committee of Edmonton (BACE), which is implementing a human rights education grant project to increase the number of Breastfeeding Friendly public spaces in her city. She also volunteers with the Best for Babes Foundation, ILCA, INFACT Canada, and Friends of the WHO Code. She’s involved in many breastfeeding related events including BfB’s Miracle Milk Stroll and Quintessence’s Breastfeeding Challenge.
Despite advances in human rights legislation in Canada and the US, women still face harassment and discrimination when they breastfeed in public. In the last 15 years in Alberta, Canada, reports of discrimination escalated even as policies were adopted to affirm and support the right of women and children to breastfeed in public. In 2014 the Breastfeeding Action Committee of Edmonton (BACE) received a grant from the Alberta Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund to further development of a tool kit for Breastfeeding Friendly spaces. The project included policy, procedure and training development for stakeholders and a public education campaign. Public attitudes towards breastfeeding in public, including in specific spaces where discrimination had occurred - swimming pools, the public library - were measured prior to the implementation of a Breastfeeding Friendly program that included policy articulation, staff training, and public education. Public attitudes were measured after program implementation. This presentation will explore the impact of the implementation of Edmonton's Breastfeeding Friendly project on the potential for families to feel safe and welcome to breastfeed in Edmonton's public spaces.

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Addressing Pediatric Dental Health Concerns of Breastfeeding Families

Joy MacTavish, MA, IBCLC, RLC, ICCE is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Lactation Consultant. She is the owner of Sound Beginnings, which provides in-home consultations and education on lactation, babywearing, and more. Her background as a birth and postpartum doula, and childbirth, newborn, and parenting educator, inform her compassionate and evidence-based support of new families in the greater Seattle area. 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 serves as adjunct faculty at the Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations at Bastyr University where she created the Breastfeeding for Doulas course. Joy is passionate about her family, social justice, and continuing education.
Topic: Full-Term Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding: Benefits, Considerations, and Ways to Offer Support - [View Abstract]
Topic: Mindful Breastfeeding: How Lactation Professionals Can Support Calm and Connection - [View Abstract]
Topic: Sending Reports: What’s in it for IBCLCs? - [View Abstract]
Topic: Supporting Clients Facing Fertility Treatment - [View Abstract]
Topic: Weaning: Supporting Families Stopping Lactation and/or Ending Their Breastfeeding/Chestfeeding Relationship - [View Abstract]
Dental caries are the most common chronic infectious disease of early childhood and new recommendations urge families to seek pediatric dental care at a younger age. For families who are practicing full-term breastfeeding and/or nocturnal breastfeeding (night-nursing), many are also reporting increased pressure to night-wean, wean completely, or otherwise incorporate care that is often not practical or evidence-based. A clear understanding of the research and realities of breastfeeding and the risks of dental caries, along with advocacy skills, are integral for breastfeeding families feeling confident in their breastfeeding relationship and their dental care. This presentation will compare the latest research and recommendations from the dental and lactation fields, as well as outline support strategies for assisting lactation clients as they understand the relevant information, communicate with their dental professionals, and make informed decisions about their breastfeeding relationships.

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Ratih Ayu Wulandari, MD, IBCLC is a breastfeeding mother of two. She applied baby led weaning method for her two babies while continue breastfeeding and get many benefits from the method. As lactation consultant she gives breastfeeding counseling and complimentary feeding either with spoon feeding or baby led weaning approach for family who wish to know more and practice it. Experienced breastfeeding her two tongue-tied babies, helped her understand the pain and support early frenotomy. She is now practicing frenotomy for tongue-tie and lip-tie. She believes attachment parenting is the best way to nurture a child and shares her thoughts on her blog http://www.menjadiibu.com.
Complementary feeding is a process starting when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of infants and therefore other foods and liquids are needed along with breast milk typically covers the period from 6 - 24 months of age. Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) is an alternative method for introducing complementary foods to infants in which the infant feeds themselves hand-held foods instead of being spoon-fed by an adult. The BLW infant also shares family food and mealtimes and is offered milk (ideally breast milk) on demand until they self-wean. In Indonesia, this method of feeding has becoming popular lately and be a controversy in Indonesian traditional spoon feeding culture. This presentation will present 10 cases of BLW in Indonesia with different settings. It shows baby who was breastfed, have a well educated and stayed at home mother will be more successful in this method of feeding.

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Beyond Baby Friendly, Thinking Outside the Box

Dr. Jane Morton has had a long, fulfilling career as a general pediatrician, She has also had a long-standing interest in breastfeeding, from understanding its clinical benefits to practical solutions for mothers having difficulty in providing breastmilk to their infants. Over the years, she has conducted research on human milk and breastfeeding and has designed and implemented systems and policies to help breastfeeding mothers. She produced award winning videos on this topic, including “Breastfeeding: A Guide to Getting Started”, “A Preemie Needs His Mother: Breastfeeding a Premature Baby” and “Making Enough Milk, the Key to Successful Breastfeeding”. These have been translated and widely used in thousands of hospitals to train both staff and new mothers. As an executive board member of both the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding, she enjoyed working to enlarge the footprint of breastfeeding, both nationally and internationally.
For a 5 year period, she joined the neonatology clinical faculty at Stanford to develop the Breastfeeding Medicine Program. In that position, she had the opportunity to design a nationally recognized educational program, conduct and publish original research on milk production and composition in mothers of very low birth weight infants, and publish a study with the AAP on the efficacy of a breastfeeding curriculum for physician residents in training. She was an advisor to the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative, and was a key author of the toolkit “Nutritional Support for the Very Low Birth Weight Infant”. She co-authored the book Best Medicine: Human Milk in the NICU. She has published extensively and presented her original research and educational workshops internationally. She continues to teach at Stanford where she is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Emerita.
Topic: First Touch, First Food, First Hour …in a mother’s hands - [View Abstract]
Complications of insufficient milk production and suboptimal intake account for delayed discharge, readmission, potentially serious medical complications and a sharp drop off in any breastfeeding before 1 month. Reframing lactation support based on prevention, accessibility and sustainability, we could logically reduce these complications, while increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates for both low and at-risk infants. Recent science supports the importance of beginning this support for all mothers in the first post delivery hour, to prevent what might be called, “the lost first hour syndrome”.

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Beyond Breastfeeding: The Long Term Implications of Tongue-Tie in Our Adult Patients

Sarah Hornsby is a registered dental hygienist, orofacial myofunctional therapist, speaker, mentor, and entrepreneur. She’s the founder and creator of MyoMentor, a comprehensive mentorship and online educational platform for myofunctional therapy with over 900 graduates as of August 2022. She’s passionate about merging technology into patient care and has been a pioneer in utilizing telehealth practices in the field of myofunctional therapy since 2014. Sarah is a provider advocate as much as she is an advocate for her patients. Her goal is to empower hygienists and dentists to elevate the standards of care by helping their patients through healthy breathing, airway dentistry, myofunctional therapy, and multi-disciplinary collaboration. She opened Faceology, her private myofunctional therapy practice, in 2010 and today it is a thriving telehealth speciality clinic with a focus on adult patient populations and complex treatment cases. Although Sarah has been a myofunctional therapist for over 10 years, it was actually her own health journey that led her down the path to help her patients.
When it comes to addressing tongue-ties in medicine and dentistry, there is a large emphasis on treating infants in order to achieve optimal breastfeeding. But what happens to the babies who grow into children and adults without addressing their tethered oral tissues, and they end up as adults with tongue-ties? This presentation will discuss the challenges and symptoms that tongue-tied adults face later in life due to restricted lingual frenums. Knowledge of long-term implications is an important part of clinical teaching when explaining tongue-tie to caregivers or colleagues.

Beyond “Screening”: Nurturing Safer Spaces to Elicit and Respond to Disclosures of Abuse

An advocate for women, Jodi Hall has dedicated herself to understanding the impact of traumatic events on the childbearing years, and toward creating solutions designed to change lives. Jodi shares her knowledge on topics related to trauma in the lives of mothers through workshops and training sessions for healthcare professionals, counsellors and social service workers throughout the world.
Jodi has worked as a doula since 1995, and a woman’s abuse counsellor where Jodi gained experience working directly with women experiencing abuse. It is through years of sharing spaces with women experiencing abuse, that Jodi’s much sought after way of ‘being with’ women was nurtured.
Jodi Hall holds a PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Western Ontario. Jodi has been instrumental in various research studies on marginalized women’s access to services that promote health. She resides with her family in London, Ontario, where she co-runs a private counseling practice with Amanda Saunders, MSW, RSW and Holly Gibson, MSW, RSW, who are also skilled birth workers, called Sharing Spaces.
Topic: Unpacking the concept of “Holding Space”: Beyond rhetoric toward action in supporting survivors of trauma in the childbearing years - [View Abstract]
Topic: “If they just knew better, they’d do better”: Care provider myths, transliteracy, and the need for a trauma informed approach in reproductive care - [View Abstract]
Health care professionals supporting women during the transition to mothering play an essential role in creating safer spaces to inquire about potential abuse. However, many health professionals are reluctant to routinely and universally inquire about abuse in pregnancy and the postpartum period, even though there is widespread recognition that abuse has devastating physical and emotional effects on the lives of women and their children with particular vulnerabilities during the transition to mothering. Research and experiential evidence suggests that pregnant women with histories of abuse want caregivers who are sensitive and responsive to their needs, know how to respond to disclosures of abuse, and are knowledgeable about services that could offer support. This workshop will provide a starting place to explore the nuances of creating safer spaces for women survivors of abuse, and some strategies to respond to disclosures.

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Diana West is an IBCLC in private practice. She is the co-author of “Sweet Sleep: Naptime and Nighttime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family,” the 8th edition of La Leche League International’s “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,” “The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk,” the clinical monograph “Breastfeeding After Breast and Nipple Procedures,” and ILCA’s popular “Clinician’s Breastfeeding Triage Tool.” She is the author of the “Defining Your Own Success: Breastfeeding After Breast Reduction Surgery.” She is on the Editorial Review Board for the “Journal of Clinical Lactation,” a La Leche League Leader and the Director of Media Relations for La Leche League International. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is the administrator of the popular BFAR.org, LowMilkSupply.org, and LactSpeak.com websites. She lives with her three sons and one husband in the picturesque mountains of western New Jersey in the United States.
Topic: Mothers Speak Out: Top Five Traits of a Great Lactation Consultant - [View Abstract]
Topic: Postpartum Nipple Pain: Causes, Treatments, and Empathy - [View Abstract]
Topic: Sweet Sleep: Bedsharing for Breastfeeding Mothers and Babies - [View Abstract]
This session presents a detailed discussion of breast assessment techniques and criteria, with photos contributed by colleagues around the world.

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Breastfeeding - what we need to know as Birth Workers

Geraldine has been involved in breastfeeding support and education for 30 years in Ireland. She works in private practice as a Lactation Consultant doing home visits. She has a major interest in Adult Education and she runs Training of Trainer (Lactation) courses for healthcare professionals in Ireland. She tutors for a group called Cuidiú, training both breastfeeding counselors and childbirth educators.She has organized Peer to peer education for other groups in Ireland and abroad. Geraldine has spoken at many conferences both in Ireland and abroad or a range of topics but her choice usually comes back to her interest in Adult education and the theories around learning styles, groupwork, experiential learning and programme development.
Topic: Learning styles – Certainly Not a One Size Fits All - [View Abstract]
Birth workers are usually the first contact with parents and are therefore the people who are best placed to influence them in their choice of infant feeding method. Adults only retain information on a ‘need to know’ basis, so meeting the needs of individuals in your interactions is important. Whether you provide a formal breastfeeding class or just have 5 mins to chat during a prenatal visit, what is the best way for you to provide evidence, which information is important. How can you help parents to make an informed decision about feeding. Adult education theory, learning styles, aims and learning outcomes for your interactions, as well as breastfeeding information will be presented and ideas for how you can make your clients learning fun and interactive.