Dr Amy Brown Dr Amy Brown is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK. Her research explores psychological, cultural and societal barriers to breastfeeding, with an emphasis on understanding how we can better support women to breastfeed and subsequently raise breastfeeding rates. Her primary focus is how we can shift our perception of breastfeeding as an individual mothering issue, to a wider public health problem, with consideration to how we can make societal changes to protect and encourage breastfeeding. Dr Brown has published over 50 papers exploring the barriers women face in feeding their baby during the first year. In 2016 she published her first book ‘Breastfeeding Uncovered: Who really decides how we feed our babies’, followed by her second ‘Why Starting Solids Matters’ in 2017. She is a regular Huffington Post blogger, aiming to change the way we think about breastfeeding, mothering and caring for our babies. What really matters when introducing solid foods? Timing, experience and responsiveness What can we do to support mothers who don’t meet their breastfeeding goals – how guilt, anxiety and anger can turn to trauma. | |
Della Forster Presenting in Melbourne Only Della is a Professor of Midwifery and has a joint appointment between the Judith Lumley Centre at La Trobe University, and the Royal Women’s Hospital. Her research includes work on breastfeeding, maternity models of care and perinatal mental health. She lead the DAME randomised controlled trial recently published in the Lancet, as well as the RUBY trial of telephone peer support to increase breastfeeding at six months.
The DAME randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigated the safety and efficacy of the increasingly widespread practice of advocating breastmilk expression during pregnancy (for women with diabetes in pregnancy). This presentation will present the primary and key secondary study outcomes. | |
Associate Prof Katie Hinde Katie Hinde, Associate Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University. As Director of the Comparative Lactation Lab, she investigates the mother-infant dyad and the role of milk for organizing infant development. In addition to her cross-cultural work among human populations, Hinde has studied rodents, cows, and other animal species. She has established descriptive and explanatory mechanisms of milk synthesis in the rhesus macaque, the primary non-human biomedical model, and demonstrated how maternal life history, infant sex, and cultural ecology influence milk. She earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Washington in 1999, a PhD in Anthropology from UCLA in 2008. From 2009-2011 she trained as a post-doc in neuroscience at the California National Primate Research Center, UC Davis and began her faculty career as an Assistant Professor in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University 2011-2015. Author of dozens of essays and academic articles, Hinde situates her work at the intersection of the life sciences and social sciences to improve human health and well-being. Hinde co-edited “Building Babies: Primate Developmental Trajectories in Proximate and Ultimate Perspective” released by Springer in 2013, is an associate editor and writer for SPLASH! Milk Science Update. She showcases research on mother’s milk, breastfeeding, and lactation for the general public, clinicians, and researchers at her blog “Mammals Suck… Milk!” Mothers Milk and Baby Behavior. How the Biological “Recipe” of Milk Differs for Sons and Daughters. | |
Monica Hogan Monica Hogan is currently registered as a Nurse, Midwife and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She has also been an inaugural board member of LCANZ and is currently on the board of ASTLiT. Having worked in a variety of settings and models of care in both Australia and the UK, Monica brings her passion for education and interest in tongue-tie to assist in helping families achieve their breastfeeding goals. Randomised controlled trials have shown short-term improvement in breastfeeding outcomes post Tongue Tie (TT) division however there is a need for longer term studies following up mothers and babies post division. At Canberra Hospital, we have been dividing TT’s for over a decade in a standardised manner. As part of our ongoing research and quality initiative, we have followed a group of babies who have had a TT division from 2013-2014. Our follow-up time periods have been 1-3 weeks, 3-5 months, 8-10 months and 34-38 months. In my presentation, I will discuss the journey post TT division and compare these findings where applicable to other studies. | |
Anita Moorhead Presenting in Sydney and Brisbane Only Anita has worked in the fields of midwifery, neonatal paediatrics, early parenting, lactation services and nursing management. She has collaborated on a number of breastfeeding papers, hospital and state based clinical guidelines and breastfeeding reports. She has been a BFHI assessor and educator.
Della Forster & Anita Moorhead – Diabetes and Antenatal Milk Expressing (DAME): A Multi-center Randomised Controlled Trial The DAME randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigated the safety and efficacy of the increasingly widespread practice of advocating breastmilk expression during pregnancy (for women with diabetes in pregnancy). This presentation will present the primary and key secondary study outcomes. | |