Breastfeeding: Turning the Tide 2015 - For Birth and Breastfeeding

Molly is a registered nurse, childbirth educator and IBCLC. She has spent most of her 60+ year nursing career with a focus on family-centered maternity care. After 5 years as a health educator, clinician and lactation consultant for a hospital midwifery service, Molly moved to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. During her years there, Molly developed comprehensive parent and professional education programs, a regional breastfeeding center, a postpartum follow-up clinic and Baby-Parent Groups. These programs led to the first US designation of “Baby Friendly” by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Molly served on the US Breastfeeding Committee and the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and is a past president of that board. Molly is currently the owner/director of Evergreen Perinatal Education, a consulting and education program for health professionals.

Andrew is a Senior Staff Specialist at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney, Australia. Previously he was Medical Director of Obstetrics at John Hunter Hospital, another large teaching hospital in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. He has been a strong support for, and respectful advocate of, midwives and midwife-centred care for many years. One ofhis interests is keeping alive skills for vaginal breech births, Papers about his experiences have been published in professional journals and as part of the International Vaginal Breech Trial Study.

Helen Ball is professor of anthropology and director of the Infancy & Sleep Centre (DISC) at Durham University. She founded Basis, the Baby Sleep Information Source in 2012 as an outreach project of DISC, and was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further & Higher Education in 2018. Her research examines the sleep ecology of infants and their parents including attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological interactions of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural and biological sleep needs. She conducts research in hospitals, the community, and her lab, and she contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care. She is a board member of the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths (ISPID), chair of the Scientific Committee for the Lullaby Trust, and qualifications board member for Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, and associate editor for the journal, Sleep Health.

Dr Alison Barrett has over 20 years of experience in the women’s health care field working as an obstetrician, gynaecologist, lactation consultant and maternal health advocate.   Alison has a strong calling to the volunteer sector and to community service.  This has led to advocacy work locally, nationally and internationally in the areas of ecology, breastfeeding promotion and mother baby attachment. She is a frequently invited speaker at conferences and seminars on birth, breastfeeding and mother baby health.

Hannah Dahlen is the professor of Midwifery, discipline leader of Midwifery and associate dean (Research and Higher Degree Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University. She has been a midwife for more than 33 years. Hannah has over 250 papers and book chapters and has strong national and international research partnerships. In 2019 Hannah was awarded a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her significant services to midwifery, nursing and medical education and research. 

Jane Scott is Professor of Public Health Nutrition Research at Curtin University. Her research interests are in the area of public health nutrition and early feeding practices and she is recognised internationally for her research into the determinants of infant feeding practices.  She was an expert technical writer on the 2012 NHMRC Infant Feeding Guidelines and has served as an expert consultant to both the World Health Organisation and the United Nations. 

Rhea Dempsey is a birth educator, doula, counsellor, trainer, and author. Rhea’s understanding of birth has been gained over four decades of attending births, counselling and educating on birth issues. She is recognized as an insightful commentator on the difficulties women, who have a yearning for normal physiological birth, face in navigating contemporary birth culture. Her book Birth with Confidence: Savvy Choices for Normal Birth, explores the issue of embracing the physiological pain of birth and the importance of experienced support. While Beyond the Birth Plan: Getting Real About Pain and Power explores the deeper emotional and psychological dynamics impacting birthing potential. Rhea is the mother of three adult daughters, and five delicious home-born grandchildren. 

Mel Dunstan has been a registered Nurse since 1998 and a Midwife since 2002. She became a Maternal Child Health Nurse in 2010. After completing Midwifery in Melbourne, she moved to Mildura and worked as a Midwife, working with Pregnant Teens and families from diverse backgrounds. She worked at the Mildura Aboriginal Health services for a number of years and this led her to work with Indigenous families in remote areas of Queensland. She packed her belongings and Cat and began working with RFDS Cairns in 2012.  Mel currently visits Mornington Island and Pormpuraaw.

Cath Nolan has been a registered Nurse since 1991 and Midwife since 2002. Cath has lived and worked remotely, with her family, in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. A large portion of her nursing career has been spent working in indigenous health, both in hospital and community settings. Cath has been working with the people of the Cape and far north Queensland since 2010.  She currently visits Pormpuraaw, Western Cape York and Mornington Island. 

Clinton Creagan quit his job to become a stay at home dad when his oldest son Archie was two and recalls that some of his co-workers were bemused and there was even the odd occasion when his manliness was questioned. As usual, he sought refuge in writing. He wrote a crime novel or three before the demands of his new day job led him to turn away from longer writing projects in favour of blogging to connect with the world - and other stay-at-home parents - and to stay sane. Clint’s blog, Reservoir Dad, won the Best Australian Blog 2013 in the Personal and Parenting category. Clint lives in Reservoir with wife Tania, and sons Archie, 9, Lewis, 7, Tyson, 4, and Maki, 2.

Emma Moore is a founding member of The Warrnambool Breastfeeding Centre and a breastfeeding counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association.  Her interest in lactation started with cows – Emma is a dairy farmer.  Emma is the mother of three daughters with another baby on the way.

Dr Martien Snellen (MBBS, MPM, FRANZCP) is a Melbourne based Perinatal Psychiatrist. Martien has published in academic journals in the areas of: The relationship between schizophrenia, mental state, and mother-infant interaction, the function of specialist mother-baby units, postpartum sexuality, the process of obtaining informed consent when prescribing in pregnancy, the management of Bipolar Disorder in pregnancy, and antenatal care and mental illness and models of psychotherapy in the psychiatric mother and baby setting. He is the author of ‘Sex & Intimacy after Childbirth: Reclaiming Desire in Your Relationship’ and is a co-editor of ‘Psychopharmacology and Pregnancy: Treatment efficacy, risks and guidelines’.

Judi Venten was first a Paediatric Nurse, then a Midwife. Later she qualified as a Neonatal Nurse and MCH Nurse.

After spending time working in the community she returned to the NICU realizing prem babies was her great passion. Having working over 2 decades in this field, she published a comprehensive handbook for both parents and staff last year.

She remains passionate and dedicated to educating and empowering both parents and staff and committed to making a difference in a baby's life each day.