IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology Focused CERPs - Section V

Michelle Pensa Branco MPH IBCLC is a lactation consultant and public health advocate. In addition to her clinical practice, which has included in-hospital, outpatient and private practice settings, she advocates for improved maternal-child health practices at the local, national and global level. She has a particular interest in the impact of trauma to breastfeeding families, models of peer support to improve breastfeeding outcomes and the application of health communication principles to the promotion and protection of breastfeeding. Michelle serves as the Director of Peer Support Programs and provides clinical lactation expertise for Nurture Project International, the only international NGO focused exclusively on infant feeding in emergencies. With Jodine Chase, she co-founded a Canadian non-profit organization, SafelyFed Canada. She is also an active member of the Ontario Public Health Association’s Breastfeeding Promotion Working Group. Michelle has previously served as the Vice-Chair of La Leche League Canada, the Communications Director for the Canadian Lactation Consultants Association as well as the Toronto Coordinator of INFACT Canada. When she is not travelling for work, Michelle stays close to home, living with her family just outside Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Anna Axelin’s academic career has included conducting quantitative and qualitative research on maternity and neonatal care in multidisciplinary and international research groups. In the Academic year 2011-2012, she joined the faculty of Department of Family Health Care Nursing in University of California San Francisco for her post-doctoral research. Since 2018, she was appointed as an associated researcher in the Department of International Maternal and Child Health at University of Uppsala in Sweden. In addition to the academic career, she has ten-year working experience as a NICU nurse.
She is leading the Health in Early Life and Parenthood (HELP) research group which aims to promote health and welfare in the early stages of life. Her special research interest is how to keep parents and sick newborns together throughout the infant hospital stay and strengthen their relationship already during pregnancy. Anna Axelin’s other research interests include pain and sleep in neonates, and the implementation of evidence-based practice in maternity and neonatal care with the help information technology.

First and foremost I am a mother, wife and latterly grandmother, my personal life has always largely informed my practice and I am always careful to remember that the women I meet are also like me in that they belong to a family.

I am a freelance consultant midwife one of the first in the UK and formerly employed at 2 very large and diverse maternity units. My career started in the 1970’s in nursing however midwifery was always my ambition and particularly the nurturance of midwifery led care.

I am a practicing psychotherapist interested in the emotional impact of childbirth; in part due to my own mothering experiences and research. I have worked closely with women to understand this phenomenon and researched emotional transition to motherhood.

Raising awareness for maternal mental health and particularly women surviving sexual abuse, I co-founded Sanctum Midwives campaigning on maternity care and sexual abuse. I have worked for many years raising awareness around the issues of maternal mental health and supporting both women and all those who work in maternity care situations. I believe positive mental health is the cornerstone to mothering and self fulfilment.

I have published widely in peer review journals but also in many books. My latest publication is ‘Understanding Anxiety, Worry and Fear in Childbearing Women’ which I edited and wrote 4 chapters. I am currently writing on the issues of child and adult female sexual abuse and its implications.

I care very deeply about women and their babies that they may come through their pregnancy and birth unharmed. I will continue to do this for the sake of midwives everywhere.

Paul Florsheim is a professor of public health at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and a Clinical Psychologist. He received his BA in History from Wesleyan University, an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University. Dr. Florsheim’s research interests include public health approaches to supporting the development of adolescents and young adults, with a particular focus on healthy relations and the prevention of mental illness. He teaches courses at the that intersection of mental health and public health, including workshops on supporting young parents across the transition to parenthood. Dr. Florsheim has published over 50 journal articles and three books, including "Lost and Found: Young Fathers in the Age of Unwed Parenthood" and "The Young Parenthood Program: A Guide to Helping Young Mothers and Fathers Become Effective Co-parents, both published by Oxford University Press. Among his current research/intervention endeavors, Dr. Florsheim is co-directing the Father Inclusive Prenatal Care study in Chicago, which is funded by the Administration for Children and Families.

Dr. Kelly McGlothen-Bell is an Assistant Professor at UT Health San Antonio, School of Nursing. As a nurse scientist, Dr. McGlothen-Bell is dedicated to understanding and resolving perinatal-infant health disparities in underrepresented groups, particularly among mother-infant dyads impacted by substance use disorders and preterm births. Dr. McGlothen-Bell uses interdisciplinary research, bio-behavioral methodologies, and community-engaged strategies to define and explore health priorities that can be remedied through culturally appropriate and sustainable health solutions. Her program of science focuses on understanding the relationship between infant feeding behaviors and readiness in high-risk infants and attunement between the primary caregiver and child during infancy and toddlerhood. The culmination of these findings contributes to the development of evidence-based interventions geared toward improving parental engagement and pediatric feeding success in marginalized populations. Dr. McGlothen-Bell has published numerous peer-reviewed articles related to developmental strategies for high-risk infants. She has also presented her work at conferences nationally and internationally. Dr. McGlothen-Bell has received numerous awards to include the 2019 National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) Mentee/Mentor Grant Award. She was also selected as a 2019-2020 Academy Jonas Nurse Policy Scholar.

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.

Dr. Ruth Oshikanlu MBE is a multi-award winning nurse, midwife and health visitor. A nurse entrepreneur, consultant, leader and parenting expert, she is passionate about supporting vulnerable children and their families to reduce health inequalities and improve their life outcomes. Her previous roles include: HIV specialist midwife, Family Nurse at one of the first pilot sites of The Family Nurse Partnership intensive home visiting parenting programme for vulnerable families, and Nurse Leader of The Lewisham Young People’s Health and Wellbeing Service.

Ruth is a Pregnancy Mindset Expert and supports pregnant women who have had assisted conception or previous pregnancy loss. She is the author of Tune In To Your Baby: Because Babies Don’t Come with An Instruction Manual.

Ruth is a Queen’s Nurse, Fellow of The Institute of Health Visiting, Royal College of Nursing and The Royal Society of Arts. She is the recipient of several national healthcare and business awards; a regular columnist and has published several feature articles in numerous national nursing and healthcare journals.

Ruth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year 2019 Honours List for being an Ambassador for the Health Visiting Profession and for services to Community Nursing, Children and Families. She is a Churchill Fellow and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from London South Bank University in November 2019.

Illiyin Morrison is a dedicated midwife, author, and the visionary owner of Mixing up Motherhood, an empowering platform for mothers. With a passion for supporting women during their childbirth journeys, Illiyin brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her work. Her book, "The Birth Debrief," offers a compassionate guide for mothers, families and partners to navigate the complexities of perinatal experiences, providing insights and tools to process and heal.

Illiyin's unwavering commitment to maternal well-being extends beyond the birthing space. Through Mixing up Motherhood, she advocates for comprehensive postpartum care, destigmatizing mental health challenges, racism and unconscious bias and fostering a supportive community for all mothers and families. Her advocacy work emphasizes the importance of self-care, self-acceptance, and embracing the transformative journey of motherhood.

As a midwife, author, and influential figure, Illiyin Morrison continues to inspire and empower mothers, creating a positive impact on their lives and the broader maternal health landscape. Her dedication to enacting change and nurturing the well-being of women shines through in all aspects of her work.

Carol Smyth is an IBCLC and Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist working in both Primary Care and in private practice in Northern Ireland. With a background in psychology she is driven by a passion to promote attachment based and trauma informed care to families and babies. She is the author of the Why Infant Reflux Matters book, both an HCP education resource and a self-help book for families worried about their baby’s reflux and unsettled behaviours. When working with parents she aims to increase understanding of normal (often misunderstood) baby behaviours and to explain why these are often different from what we expect. This understanding helps to lower parental anxiety and promotes attachment strategies proven to reduce crying.

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.