SPEAKERS

Professor Amy Brown is based in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK where she directs the new research centre ‘LIFT’ : Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translation. With a background in psychology, she first became interested in the increasingly global issue of low breastfeeding rates
when breastfeeding her first baby. Three babies and a PhD later she has spent the last sixteen years exploring psychological, cultural and societal barriers to breastfeeding, with an emphasis on understanding how we can shift our perception of breastfeeding from an individual mothering issue, to a wider public health problem.

Professor Brown has published over 100 papers exploring the barriers women face in feeding their baby during the first year. She is author of eight books on infant feeding including ‘the Positive breastfeeding book’, ‘Breastfeeding Uncovered’ and ‘Let’s talk about feeding your baby’.

Her research, articles and books can be found on her website www.professoramybrown.co.uk and she can be found across social media as ‘Professor Amy Brown’

Sonja graduated as a speech language pathologist from the University of Akron, Ohio, USA in 2002. As well as assessing and treating speech and language issues in children, Sonja is also a pediatric feeding therapist with special interest in orofacial myology disorders, including tethered oral tissues and oral habits. She is a recommended provider from the Thumbsucking Clinic™ in Australia and recently signed up to start her IBCLC journey.

Sonja has attended many conferences and continued education courses in feeding and orofacial myology. She is a member International consortium of Ankyloglossia Practitioners (ICAP); International Association of Orofacial Myologist (IAOM); the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) and the Icelandic Association of Speech Language Pathologists (FTÍ).

Sonja provides a lot of information on feeding and oral development (in Icelandic) on her webpage, www.maturogmunnur.is and is on social media as maturogmunnur.

Marianne Busck-Rasmussen, Bente Dalsgaard, Charlotte Guiliani and Ingrid Nilsson were part of a national, interdisciplinary working group in 2019-20 aiming at developing a National Clinical Guideline for examination and treatment of tongue-tie among breastfed infants.

Marianne Busck-Rasmussen is a health visitor, Master in Public Health and IBCLC, working as a specialist consultant in the National Resource Center for Breastfeeding in Denmark. She educates health professionals in breastfeeding and prepares them for the IBLCE-exam. Moreover, she facilitates regional networks on breastfeeding in Denmark.

Bente Dalsgaard is a clinical nurse specialist in obstetric nursing and IBCLC, working at a university hospital in the Northern Jutland. She has extensive knowledge and practical skills on breastfeeding and on counselling new families following birth. She furthermore offers presentation on many issues relating to breastfeeding to health professional all over Denmark.

Charlotte Guiliani graduated from Anglo European College of Chiropractic (AECC) in 1994 and completed her Master in Pediatric Musculoskeletal Health at Bournemouth University in 2014. She has build-up an interdisciplinary pediatric clinic receiving more than 1000 new paediatric patients a year and is a frequent guest lecturer on the subject Paediatric Oral Motor Dysfunction.

Ingrid Nilsson is a nurse, Master in Health Anthropology, Phd, and IBCLC, working as chief consultant and head of the National Resource Center for Breastfeeding in Denmark, aiming at collecting and disseminating knowledge on breastfeeding to health professionals. Her main research concentrates on breastfeeding in the early period following birth in the context of early discharge.

Frida has a B.Sc. in Nursing, M.Sc. in midwifery and is an IBCLC from Iceland. She works in the birthing unit at The National University Hospital of Iceland as well as doing home visits after birth and breastfeeding consultations. Frida also teaches healthcare professionals at the University of Iceland and does antenatal classes for parents. Frida finished her Master in midwifery in 2020 from the University of Iceland, she focused on breastfeeding rates in Iceland that were not accessible to the public and the loss of support for breastfeeding women. Her thesis was about the effectiveness of the support of midwifes and nurses on the rate and length of breastfeeding. A Systematic review.