Breastfeeding: Turning the Tide for Birth and Breastfeeding

Bridget Ingle is a Lactation Consultant of 23 years working in private practice in Brisbane. She has a background in paediatric nursing, midwifery and as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor with ABA before her certification as an IBCLC in 1992. Bridget has worked continually in the field of breastfeeding, lactation support and education since then and has completed orofacial myology study. Bridget has considerable experience and special interest in all causes of suck anomalies, at-breast feeding line use, and cleft lip/palate. Bridget is co-founder of ASTLiT. 

Nils Bergman’s primary professional interest revolves around Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), and the underlying perinatal and developmental neuroscience. His diverse background explains his broader public health approach to supporting and promoting the global dissemination of maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact. With Midwife Agneta Jurisoo, Nils developed and implemented KMC for premature infants right from birth, with dramatic improvement in survival of premature babies.

He continues researching this and has given keynote addresses on KMC at International conferences in six continents. He has a diploma in Child Health, a masters degree in Public Health, and a Doctoral degree in Clinical Pharmacology.

Jill Bergman holds a degree in Geography and English and a higher diploma in Education. She has worked as a teacher, missionary, counselor, guider and youth leader, in three cultures and using three languages. Nevertheless, her top priority is her family, and three children. All along she has been working with Dr Nils Bergman on Kangaroo mother care and has written a book – “hold your prem” a workbook for skin to skin contact for parents of premature babies, as well as scripted and produced four films on KMC.

Gloria Lemay has been attending births in BC for over 30 years. She has faced relentless persecution by the BC College of Midwives for not having joined their organization and becoming "regulated" in 1998, and yet, remains one of the most sought after birth educators and birth attendants in the province. To learn more about Gloria Lemay visit www.glorialemay.com.

Dr. Alison Stuebe is Associate Professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles on the association between lactation and long-term maternal health outcomes. Her current research includes the clinical management of breastfeeding difficulties and the role of oxytocin in women’s health. In the clinical arena she serves as Medical Director of Lactation Services for UNC Healthcare, where she leads an interdisciplinary team of UNC clinicians that is developing new approaches to management of breastfeeding difficulties. Dr. Stuebe is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Committee on Obstetric Practice, chairs the External Communications Committee of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and is a member of the board of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. She has been American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology certified since 2010.

Rachel Reed is an Independent Midwife and a Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia). She began her midwifery career in the UK and has practised midwifery within a range of care models and settings including hospitals, birth centres, community and homebirth. Rachel is committed to the promotion of physiological birth, and of women’s innate ability to birth.

Lynne has been a midwife for 25 years and is a wife, and mother of 3 sons. She has worked in the public and private maternity care sectors, established a home birth practice on the Sunshine Coast in QLD, and has been involved in midwifery education programs, both hospital and university-based. She helped establish the Nambour-Selangor Private Hospital Maternity Unit in 1997, where she continued to work up until June 2008. She completed an Honours project in 2006, investigating the lived experience of Caesarean and the choice for a non-medically indicated CS for a first birth. She is passionate about ensuring that women’s perspectives of their birthing experience are made known through their own stories because women’s accounts of their experiences are so invisible in the literature relating to birth.

Vicki Chan is a mother and grandmother and has been a midwife for 40 years. She has a broad midwifery experience including working in Australian public and private hospitals, a birth centre, and as a homebirth midwife. She still practices as a midwife and is also now clinical facilitator and tutor for student midwives. Her passion for the work has never waned and is driven by the knowledge of the importance of the birth experience and its impact on women and families. Women have been her greatest teachers and they have taught her well. She has spoken about birth and its possibilities as an invited presenter on 5 continents and in 2011, was a co-founder of, and continues to support, the FreMo Birth Centre in Kenya.

William Sears, one of America’s most renowned paediatricians, is the father of eight children, author of over 40 books on childcare and Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.

A paediatrician for over 35 years, Dr. Sears received his paediatric training at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital in Boston and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the largest children’s hospital in the world, where he served as Associate Ward Chief of the newborn nursery and Associate Professor of Pediatrics. In addition to writing many books and scientific articles, Dr. Sears is a medical and parenting consultant to Baby Talk and Parenting Magazines. Dr. Sears is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a fellow of the Royal College of Pediatricians.

Patrice presently holds a position as a Clinical Midwife Consultant, Sunshine Hospital – Western Health, Melbourne, Victoria where her work has been focused on implementing an all risk caseload model of midwifery inclusive of the Victorian Department of Health pilot Home Birth program. The other major committees that consume her spare time are as a Board member of the Perinatal Services Advisory Committee; as a member of the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity – Stillbirth Sub-Committee and as a member of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council – Registered Midwife Accreditation Committee.

Michael is the Senior Staff Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at South West Healthcare in Warrnambool. He has made a career working in rural and regional centres, and is a firm advocate of reducing the current high rates of surgery in Obstetric services. He has worked in remote areas of Australia including Darwin, Alice Springs and Bowral and has taught at the University of Melbourne and The University of Wollongong.

Martha Sears is the mother of eight children, a registered nurse, a former childbirth educator, a La Leche League leader, and a lactation consultant. Martha is the co-author of more than 25 parenting books and is a popular lecturer and media guest drawing on her eighteen years of breastfeeding experience Martha speaks frequently at national parenting conferences and is noted for her advice on how to handle the most common problems facing today’s mothers with their changing lifestyles.