Dr. Jennifer Thomas, MD, MPH, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM

Dr. Jenny Thomas is a pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist at Aurora Healthcare in Franklin, Wisconsin. She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Community and Family Medicine and Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). She received both her MD and MPH from MCW. She has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) since 2003. She currently serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Breastfeeding Executive Board.

A founder and Immediate-past Chairperson of the Wisconsin Breastfeeding Coalition, Dr. Thomas serves on the Medical Advisory Board for the Mother’s Milk Bank of  the Western Great Lakes. She is one of only a few physicians internationally to be recognized as a Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (FABM) for her expertise in breastfeeding.

Session Titles:

  • CE: Birth Weight, Bilirubin, and Blood Sugar: What do the Numbers Mean for Newborn Care
  • CE: Working Together: Communicating with physicians about breastfeeding.
  • CE: The Unique Characteristics of the Late Preterm Infant
  • CE: Lunch and Learn: Breastfeeding the Baby with Special Needs: Babies with Down Syndrome
  • CE: Navigating the First Two weeks: The Normal Newborn and Appropriate Supplementation

 

Dr. Teresa Ellen Baker, MD

Dr. Baker has a combined private and academic Ob/Gyn practice with the University Physicians at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in Amarillo.  She is the Ob/Gyn residency program director and Co-Director of the InfantRisk Center with Dr. Thomas Hale.  She is interested in teen pregnancy, postpartum depression, breastfeeding and promoting preventative medicine.

Session Titles:

  • CE: Marijuana and Breastfeeding (Repeated session – once Friday, once Saturday)
  • CE: The Infant Risk Center: New information on medications and breastfeeding
  • CE: Postpartum Depression

 

Lourdes Santaballa, BA, IBCLC

Lourdes Santaballa is a community activist and organizer, having previously worked in the domestic violence, affordable housing, and economic equity movements. She has been active in the birth and breastfeeding community since the birth of her first child in 2006. A former La Leche League leader and currently an IBCLC since 2011, she was the founder of the lactation program at sePARE, a community based municipal program in Vega Baja, providing coordinated services to low income families and helping draft its model lactation policy. Under her leadership the program was awarded the ILCA Care Award and received the Wilson-Clay Hoover Award for Research. The program was recognized for achieving a 76% exclusive breastfeeding rate among participants at six weeks. Lourdes received the notorious Drs. Ruth Lawrence and Audrey Naylor Legacy Scholarship in 2016 by the United States Breastfeeding Committee, the Miriam H. Labbok Award for Excellence at the Breastfeeding and Feminism conference in 2018, and is currently completing her master’s degree in clinical integrative nutrition. In October 2017, following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, she co-founded Alimentación Segura Infantil or ASI, an Infant and Young Child feeding program focused on increasing breastfeeding, leadership and training in marginalized communities in Puerto Rico. In the Spring of 2019, she started a company called Problemática Media dedicated to communications in lactation and is currently a podcaster, with her weekly show in Spanish, Teta y Pecho: Lactancia Interseccional and more projects in Spanish and English coming soon.

Session Titles:

  • CE: Intersectional Lactation and Bringing Everybody to the Table
  • CE: WHO Code: Understanding and Making the International Code Relevant
  • CE: Emergency Response to Families with Infants and Young Children During Disasters

 

Dr. Pamela Berens, MD, IBCLC

Dr. Berens received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas, Houston where she subsequently joined the faculty. She serves as Professor and Vice-Chair of Clinical Affairs at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and Chief of Service at the Lyndon B Johnson Hospital. She has an active clinical practice and teaches medical student and residents. In her role as an IBCLC she sees mothers referred for consultation with difficult breastfeeding complications. Her area of academic and educational focus surrounds pregnancy and postpartum care, breastfeeding and breastfeeding complications. She is active in the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine previously serving as a board member, meeting co-chair and contributing author for 3 separate ABM protocols. She has participated in various research projects related to breastfeeding. She is active in outreach multidisciplinary breastfeeding education across the state of Texas with the Texas Department of State Health Services. She served as a physician co-leader for the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality Texas Breastfeeding Learning Collaborative encouraging hospitals and providers to incorporate Baby Friendly Hospital Practices. She participates with the ACOG Breastfeeding Expert Work Group and assists with their various endeavors to promote breastfeeding and educate Obstetricians further about the topic. She has written book chapters and published research on breastfeeding topics primarily relating to the maternal perspective and maternal breastfeeding complications.

Session Titles:

  • CE: Breast Complications during Breastfeeding
  • CE: Breastfeeding with maternal medical conditions
  • CE: Patient Centered c-sections and pain control to minimize BF difficulties

 

Leah Jolly, BA, IBCLC, RLC

Leah Jolly, BA, IBCLC, RLC has been working with breastfeeding families since 2004 as a La Leche League leader and since certifying as an IBCLC in 2011.  Leah is the owner of Bay Area Breastfeeding and Education, LLC, aka “BABE”, a busy private practice lactation consulting business in the Houston metro and surrounding areas. For the past five years, BABE has been privileged to provide lactation services in one of the area’s busiest pediatric offices, a first in all of the Houston area. She presents regularly on breastfeeding and lactation to families and professionals, and has launched corporate lactation programs for several large companies in the Houston area. Leah is a co-host of a podcast “Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah” where she shares her experience as a lactation consultant in private practice and business owner. She is mom to 4 boys ages 10-19 years and is married to her husband, Ben, for 21 years!

Session Titles;

  • CE: IBCLC Support for TOTS in Breastfeeding Dyads
  • CE: Strategies to Support Pumping Families
  • CE: The Importance of Prenatal Breastfeeding Support