IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Clinical Skills / Ethical and Legal Issues Focused CERPs - Section VII C
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A Case Study Approach to Critical Thinking Skills for Lactation Professionals

Melissa Cole is a board-certified lactation consultant, neonatal oral-motor assessment professional and clinical herbalist in private practice. Melissa is passionate about providing comprehensive, holistic lactation support and improving the level of clinical lactation skills for health professional. She enjoys teaching, researching and writing about wellness and lactation-related topics. Her bachelor’s degree is in maternal/child health and lactation and her master’s degree is in therapeutic herbalism. Before pursuing her current path, Melissa’s background was in education and cultural arts, which has served her well in her work as a lactation consultant and healthcare educator. She loves living, working and playing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her 3 children.
Topic: Beyond Fenugreek: An Individualized Approach to Dietary and Herbal Galactagogues - [View Abstract]
Topic: Beyond the Basics of Latch: Support Strategies for Helping Babies when the Basics Aren’t Enough - [View Abstract]
Topic: Common Infant Digestive Health Concerns and Useful Support Strategies - [View Abstract]
Topic: Connection and Care: Virtual Support for Tongue-Tied Infants - [View Abstract]
Topic: Feeding is Movement: Activities for Supporting Optimal Infant Oral Function - [View Abstract]
Topic: Infant Gut Health: Common Concerns and Useful Support Strategies - [View Abstract]
Topic: Infant Oral Assessment: Exploring Anatomy and Function Beyond the Frenulum - [View Abstract]
Topic: Low Milk Production Detective Work: Assessment and Care Plan Considerations - [View Abstract]
Topic: New Thoughts on Infant Pre and Post-Frenotomy Care - [View Abstract]
Topic: Placenta Medicine as a Galactogogue: Tradition or Trend? - [View Abstract]
Topic: Thinking Critically About the Use of Clinical Lactation Tools - [View Abstract]
Topic: Will It Hurt? Frenotomy Aftercare Strategies to Optimize Healing Outcomes for the Newborn - [View Abstract]
There are many reasons infants struggle to latch and feed well. Critically thinking through a case involves assessing all the variables that may be impacting feedings. This is no easy task when we must consider what is going on on the parent's side and the infant's side. How can we put all the pieces of a complex case together in order to be an effective lactation detective? This interactive session is designed to help providers implement critical thinking skills in order to think outside the box when it comes to difficult cases. Walk through the cases with me and put your skills to the test!

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Nancy Mohrbacher was born and raised in the Chicago area, where she lives today. She is a board-certified lactation consultant who has been helping nursing mothers since 1982. Her breastfeeding books for parents and professionals include Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple and its Pocket Guide; Breastfeeding Made Simple(with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett); Working and Breastfeeding Made Simple; and Breastfeeding Solutions and its companion app for Android and iPhone.
Nancy currently contracts with hospitals to improve breastfeeding practices, writes for many publications, and speaks at events around the world. Nancy was in the first group of 16 to be honored for her lifetime contributions to breastfeeding with the designation FILCA, Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association.
Topic: Applying Bioethics to Milk Banking and Milk Sharing - [View Abstract]
Topic: Concerns About Low Milk Production - [View Abstract]
Topic: Transitioning the Preterm Infant to the Breast - [View Abstract]
Topic: Using Gravity-Assisted Positions to Prevent Early Breastfeeding Problems - [View Abstract]
Topic: What Mothers Need to Exclusively Breastfeed - [View Abstract]
Topic: What's New In Lactation - [View Abstract]
This session provides a summary of the 7 universal principles of bioethics and examples of how they apply to milk banking and milk sharing. It also offers an analysis of the evidence that supports the use of pasteurized donor human milk with preterm babies and examines the range of milk-sharing options and the ethical and practical considerations for parents and breastfeeding supporters.


Marsha is a registered nurse and international board certified lactation consultant. She has been assisting breastfeeding families in hospital, clinic, and home settings since 1976. Marsha is the executive director of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy: Research, Education, and Legal Branch (NABA REAL). As such, she advocates for breastfeeding at the state and federal levels. She served as a vice president of the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) from 1990-1994 and in 1999 as president of ILCA. She is a board member of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition, the US Lactation Consultant Association, and Baby Friendly USA, USLCA’s representative to the USDA’s Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium, and NABA REAL’s representative to the US Breastfeeding Committee. Marsha is an international speaker, and an author of numerous publications including ones on the hazards of infant formula use, Code issues in the US, and Breastfeeding Management for the Clinician: Using the Evidence.
Topic: Nipple Nuances: From Pain to Peppermint and What the Textbooks Don't Cover - [View Abstract]
Medical ethics is a foundation of clinical practice. While we all strive to practice in an ethical manner, there are a number of situations and issues that arise which may challenge our ethical principles. This presentation explores the application of medical ethics to clinical lactation practice.


Annie Frisbie has been an IBCLC in private practice since 2011. Her background is in media, where she worked very closely with producers, content developers, and tech thought leaders on business strategy, content development, contracts, legal clearances, and more. She has also produced training for professional media software solutions as well as created and managed print and video content for media professionals.
In 2018 she was honored with the US Lactation Consultant Association's President's Award, "awarding those that demonstrate extraordinary service to the association and profession."
She is a produced screenwriter and proud member of the Writers Guild of America, East. She have a BA from Franklin and Marshall College, and an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University. In a previous life I was a film critic. I live with my husband and our two children in Queens, New York.
Topic: The Ethics of Digital Privacy and Lactation Practice - [View Abstract]
Follow the complete life cycle of a typical client through collecting information during the intake process, documenting and charting effectively and efficiently, and communicating with families and their care providers. Bring your questions about incorporating technology while protecting client/patient privacy and providing compassionate care so families can meet their goals.

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Avoid Lawsuits and Pink Slips! Legal and Ethical Issues for the IBCLC

Liz Brooks is a private practice International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and licensed lawyer, with expertise in criminal, administrative, non-profit, ethics, and lactation-related law. Liz offers in-home lactation consultations, and bedside care and teaching in two Baby-Friendly-designated hospitals.
She has been a leader in organizations for IBCLCs, breastfeeding promotion, and non-profit human milk banking. She authored the only textbook on legal and ethical issues for the IBCLC, and writes on health care ethics, equity, and conflict-of-interest in several books, blogs, and peer-reviewed journals.
She is a popular international conference speaker, offering practical tips with wit and wisdom for anyone who works with lactating and human milk-using families. Liz self-identifies as a cisgender hetero white woman with unearned privilege, and uses she/her/hers pronouns.
Topic: Using a Cool Head When You’re on the Hot Seat: Ethical and Legal Topics That Make Us Sweat, and How to Avoid Getting Burned - [View Abstract]
Topic: What’s Too “Friendly” for an IBCLC on Social Media? - [View Abstract]
Topic: Whiners and Deniers: Ethics and Diplomacy in Difficult Cases - [View Abstract]
This presentation is a first of its kind: a "survey course" of legal and ethical tensions unique to the IBCLC. Regardless of one’s other professional licenses or credentials, there are four primary practice-guiding documents for the IBCLC. After a review of those “rules of the road,” we’ll navigate a simple algorithm the IBCLC can use to determine what she could, should or must do, in any situation that sets off ethical red flags in the IBCLC’s mind. Then, we’ll hit highlights of legal and ethical issues for the IBCLC: certification vs. licensure vs. certificates-for-classes-and-courses; who is the patient/client?; conflicts of interest (and tensions from “wearing many hats”); intellectual property law; the (WHO) International Code; the IBCLC in the courtroom (as expert or witness); the IBCLC on the Internet; the IBCLC as breastfeeding advocate, and its corollary: the IBCLC as advocate for a breastfeeding mother.


Dr. Rice has been working at the intersection of education and health for social justice and public good. She is the former Executive Director of the Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon. Currently, Dr. Rice works on organizational development, communication, marketing, public policy and community engagement to advance health equity through access to donor human milk. A national thought leader, she is deeply engaged in convening conversations about the importance of maintaining women’s biological integrity, advancing feminist approaches to human milk banking and at the same time, encouraging capacity building for human milk derived therapies improving health outcomes for the most vulnerable babies.
Most recently Dr. Rice provided consulting as a Policy Associate with Mothers' Milk Bank of San Jose and has provided strategy and policy consulting for the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA). Marion holds a doctorate in Education Leadership and is an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant, IBCLC.
This session will look at how for profit corporations are seeking to aggregate, control and exploit human milk. In the absence of federal health policy and consumer regulation/protection, companies are emerging seeking to build commercial markets for human milk often under the guise of improving the economic status of women and infant health.
We will examine companies currently paying for milk both domestically and internationally and the implications for women and emerging policy both at the federal and state level.
Entities setting a price for human milk in the absence of supportive public policy may in fact undermine women’s biological integrity, infant health and contribute to the vulnerability of women and babies.
I will ask participants to consider the issues and to support models of community engagement and decision making that are women centered and women led that keep this biologically critical substance within the community from where it comes; supporting breastfeeding and benefiting women and babies.


Paulina is the mother of three multicultural Latino children and Project Director for Lifespan Local. Paulina earned her BS in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University, a MS in Organizational leadership from the University of Denver and is completing her PhD in Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado - Denver. Paulina has over 18 years of experience working with families with young children. As a Maternal Child Health specialist for Jefferson County Public Health, she developed a NICU follow-up home visitation program and the pediatric emergency preparedness plan, co-founded and coordinated the Conectando Network (former Adelante Jeffco), established community navigation and lactation support groups focused on the Latino Spanish speaking community, and lead other initiatives to support leadership and partnerships among communities and organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she managed the new program Whole Community Inclusion to ensure the pandemic response and recovery implementation included health equity practices that recognize the needs and the strengths of priority populations in the county. Her areas of current work include promoting perinatal and infant mental health along the continuum of care; building community capacity to navigate health and education systems; facilitating organizational change to embrace linguistic and culturally responsive practices; and establishing community-placed participatory programs to strengthen communities. She likes to be with people, learn from and with others, and connect passions for meaningful work.
Topic: From the NICU to the home: mother’s experiences - [View Abstract]
Topic: Leadership Skills in Lactation: Make Extraordinary Things Happen - [View Abstract]
Topic: Liderazgo en Lactancia - Para Alcanzar Metas Extraordinarias - [View Abstract]
Topic: Nursing A Preemie, Perspectives For Lactation Supporters and Professionals - [View Abstract]
Breast/chest feeding is a biological, emotional, and social process. There is an undeniable link between human
milk and behaviors associated with feeding. Breast or chest feeding provide the perfect environment for babies’
development, such as bonding, attachment, mutual regulation, security, etc. But what happens when parents
can’t access effective, culturally competent, compassionate lactation services? What happens when over
generations lactation support has been lacking?
Every parent deserves the chance to meet their feeding goals and enjoy the short and long term benefits of
human milk feeding. Social inequities augment the effects of not experiencing those benefits making it even
harder for parents and babies to have their physical, emotional and social needs met. Outcomes of lactation
impact the dyad, the family, the community beyond the nutritional needs of the infant.
Advocacy efforts at local, regional and national levels create meaningful opportunities for health equity, so
those with no power or resources can reach optimal health. Lactation consultants are in a unique position to
advocate and partner with others to support policies and programs that focus on equity as a systems approach
to benefit marginalized communities and impact their physical and mental health in the long-term.

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Barbara D. Robertson, IBCLC, has been involved in education for over 34 years. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 1988 and her Master’s in Education in 1995. Barbara left teaching elementary students in 1995 to raise her two children. Barbara is now the Director of The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor and of the brand new business LactaLearning.
The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor will still continue to serve breast/chestfeeding families and now LactaLearning will be dedicated to all of Barbara’s professional lactation trainings. Barbara has developed two 95 hour professional lactation training, a group training and a completely self study training with Nancy Mohrbacher. Barbara’s idea of creating professional book groups has exploded with her hosting Making More Milk with Lisa Marasco, Supporting Sucking Skills with Cathy Watson Genna, Breastfeeding Answers, 2nd Edition with Nancy Mohrbacher, and new for the fall, Safe Infant Sleep with Dr. James McKenna. Barbara will be hosting a one day online conference in the fall with Lisa Marasco and Cathy Watson Genna using all of her tech savvy skills to make this a one of a kind experience. Barbara is also a speaker for hire on a wide variety of topics including Motivational Interviewing. Barbara volunteered for the United States Lactation Consultation Association as the Director of Professional Development for 4.5 years.
She just retired as Associate Editor for Clinical Lactation, a journal she helped create for USLCA. Barbara has free podcasts, a blog, and Youtube videos which can all be found on her websites lactalearning.com and bfcaa.com. She has written many articles as well. She loves working with parents and babies, helping them with breast/chestfeeding problems in whatever way she can.
Topic: Breastfeeding: Baby’s First Milestone - [View Abstract]
Topic: Clinical Assessment and Management of Low Milk Production - [View Abstract]
Topic: Deconstructing Online Messaging: Ethical Considerations - [View Abstract]
Topic: Milk Sharing and Milk Banking: Building Knowledge for Better Outcomes - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Baby's Not Gaining Weight! Now What? - [View Abstract]
Topic: The Great Nipple Shield Debate - [View Abstract]
If it is on the internet, it must be true! Not. Online media may present as an entertainment video but really be a commercial for a product. A publication can appear to a research article but actually be an opinion blog. We will identify ways in which businesses try to manipulate the viewer. Underlying messages will be decoded using the values of biomedical ethics and marketing techniques. Online breastfeeding media will be analyzed through the lens of biomedical ethics to uncover their true meaning.


Rachelle is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® and a Registered Dietitian with a Masters of Science degree in health education. She has worked as a lactation consultant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia since 1996 when she established the Lactation Support Program. Rachelle provides lactation consults for families of patients admitted to the hospital and assists mothers and babies with breastfeeding. She counsels families in the Fetal Heart Program prenatally to offer support and guidance related to breastfeeding an infant with congenital heart disease. She also has an outpatient clinic to help mothers with breastfeeding challenges. She specializes in nutrition-related problems including food allergies and poor growth. Rachelle is the co-author of the ILCA publication “Risks of Not Breastfeeding” and the ADA Position Statement on Breastfeeding. Rachelle has served on the Board for the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE®) since 2009 and currently serves as Chair. She breastfed four children and has five grandchildren, all of whom were breastfed.
Sara Blair Lake, J.D., CAE serves as Executive Director of the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE®), a global certification program with over twenty-six thousand certificants in ninety-six countries. She also serves as an ex officio Board member to the Monetary Investment for Lactation Consultant Certification (MILCC), an affiliated charitable organization which provides scholarships to individuals in need of financial support to pursue careers in lactation consulting.
Sara also currently serves on the International Section Council of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and Chair of the 2014 Program Committee for the Annual Conference of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. She has held senior positions with credentialing and association organizations for the past fifteen years and previously served as Chair for her own certification governing body, the Certified Association Executive (CAE) Commission of ASAE. Sara presents extensively regarding credentialing and association management, particularly in the international arena.
The development of a professional certification examination is a laborious and intensive process. Due to security issues, details regarding the development of specific examinations cannot be completely transparent. However, the general process for the development of certification examinations should be a public and transparent topic. While every certification examination is unique, the development process for most professional certification examinations following best practices is somewhat similar. If you have ever wanted to know about how professional certification examinations are developed, what the process involves or how professional certification examinations differ from other types of examinations, this is the session for you! Hear from the Chair and Executive Director of the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE) on this relevant topic.


Melissa Morgan is a lactation consultant operating a robust private practice in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. She has also partnered with a thriving physician's group to provide contractional lactation care and provides lactation services and practitioner education in the public health setting. She is studying health service administration with an emphasis on finance and has consulted with other IBCLCs in their efforts to establish in-clinic lactation services in the physician office. She and her husband are raising their three children in their self-built home in the foothills of the Rockies where she enjoys her warm/hot glass studio, snowshoeing, and berry picking.
Renee Beebe is a board certified lactation consultant with a busy private practice. She has been working in the field of lactation since the birth of her first child in 1990--as a La Leche League Leader, postpartum doula and IBCLC. Since becoming certified in 1997, Renee has supported moms through home, hospital and clinic visits, drop-in groups in the Seattle area and phone and tele-conferencing consultations internationally. In 2013, she began a contractual relationship with a naturopathic family practice clinic to provide lactation services. Renee is thankful to live in breastfeeding-friendly Seattle, close to her 2 grown daughters.
The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to provide no-cost-sharing lactation benefits to mothers and babies.IBCLC is the premier professional to provide breastfeeding services, but the lack of broad state licensure for lactation consultants limits access to services, as Medicaid and most insurers will not directly cover unlicensed health care providers. Establishing IBCLC services in the physician’s clinic setting overcomes this limitation and allows for increased access to expert breastfeeding help. This presentation will equip IBCLCs and physicians with tools necessary to collaborate and implement a lactation program. Details regarding billing, financial arrangements, complementary care, marketing, etc., will be discussed. In the United States; there is an entire Facebook group devoted to this topic and the speakers regularly field questions about establishing this type of arrangement. Melissa and Renee will discuss two different models from their experience: one in an OB-GYN clinic and one in a naturopathic family medicine clinic.

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