SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
(breakouts subject to change)
Friday, May 2nd: "Health Care Provider Day"
8:30 am - 10:00 am: Session 1. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Simplifying Breastfeeding: The First 36 hours"
This session covers:
10:15 am - 11:45 pm: Session 2. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Helping Mothers Who Exclusively Pump"
This session covers:
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm: Session 3. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Working and Breastfeeding Made Simple"
This session covers:
2:15 pm - 3:30 pm: Session 4, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Transitioning to the Breast", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk is well suited to both breastfeeding specialists and parents and covers:
2) "Herbs and the Breastfeeding Dyad", Sheila Humphrey
This session seeks to bring a greater understanding about herbal medicine and the safe use of plants by the breastfeeding mother. It will review the safety record and evidence for the clinical use of galactogogue herbs and foods, as well as provide counseling guidance when helping mothers with low milk supply.
3) "Breastfeeding Multiples: Supporting Families with Inspiration and Practical Tips", Tiffany Gallagher
Families expecting twins, triplets, or more are faced with more hurdles to successful breastfeeding than typical expectant families. Discover what roadblocks these families may face and leave with information that you can use to inspire and inform families of multiples who wish to breastfeed.
3:45 pm - 5:00 pm: Session 5, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Using the International Code to Create Change", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk is suited to breastfeeding specialists and families. It covers:
2) "Herbs and the Breastfeeding Dyad", Sheila Humphrey
This session seeks to bring a greater understanding about herbal medicine and the safe use of plants by the breastfeeding mother. It will review the safety record and evidence for the clinical use of galactogogue herbs and foods, as well as provide counseling guidance when helping mothers with low milk supply.
3) "Fifty-Seven Years of Mother-to-Mother Support", Amy Shaw
A discussion of La Leche League philosophy, mission, and what makes LLL unigue. How LLL came to be and its evolving role through the years.
4) "Promoting Confidence in the Breastfeeding Mother", Vickie Albright
Mothers often struggle with breastfeeding due to a preconceived notion that it is difficult or painful. Fear and anxiety can become barriers to success. This session will discuss strategies, including laidback breastfeeding, to empower mothers to trust their breasts, their baby and the process of breastfeeding.
Saturday, May 3rd: "Family Day"
(breakouts subject to change)
9:00 am - 10:15 am: General Session 1. Nancy Mohrbacher presents "What Women Need to Breastfeed Exclusively"
Few barriers to exclusive breastfeeding are more challenging than mothers’ doubts in their ability to breastfeed and their unrealistic expectations of breastfeeding and baby behavior. Understand why so many mothers supplement with formula and the role of cultural beliefs in this decision. Also hear about how breastfeeding self-efficacy affects a woman’s feeding decisions and what women need to meet their breastfeeding goals.
10:45 am - 12:15 pm: Session 2, Breakout, options include:
1) "Understanding Breastfeeding Behaviors", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk includes video clips from an international cast of characters. Provides a chronological summary of recommended approaches to latch, with a description of what we got right and which assumptions were later disproved. Includes an overview of the hardwiring both mothers and babies bring to breastfeeding, a checklist for evaluating basic breastfeeding dynamics, and anatomical issues that can interfere.
2) "Happily Married, With Kids", Maureen Campion
Having a passionate and healthy marriages is one of the best gifts we can give our kids, but it isn't always easy. The early, intensive parenting years provide some real challenges to marriages. This workshop will review some of the research on best marriage practices and provide some ideas about staying connected and partnered in the childraising years.
3) "Listening From The Heart", Kim Miller
“Listening from the Heart” is an introduction to Nonviolent communication skills. The main emphasis is on listening in a way that leads to feeling identification. The importance of identifying feelings is that it gets away from the shame, blame, and pain, of right and wrong thinking that is so ingrained in us. By identifying feelings and connecting them to the unmet needs, Nonviolent communication provides a very efficient but also profoundly empathetic tool for conflict resolution and problem solving.
4) "Working and Breastfeeding", Jo Carrane
Many moms find themselves headed back to work in the weeks or months following the start of a new breastfeeding relationship. Whatever the reason for their return, good advice from a trusted LLL Leader or lactation professional can often mean the difference in whether that mom is able to continue her nursing relationship. This session will discuss the more common and less common questions of nursing moms working outside the home and the suggestions that can give them the tools to work through those challenges.
5) "Preparing for Birth and Early Breastfeeding: A Doula's Perspective", Sarah Marshall and Judith Nylander
There is more to a successful breastfeeding experience than the nuts and bolts of it. The Listening-Anticipating-Building (LAB) approach is a non-medical approach that places emphasis on the individual woman's (and family's) experience so that the breastfeeding experience is and feels successful to each woman. Come listen to how doulas implement LAB and how it can be integral to breastfeeding education and support.
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: Session 3, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Breast, Bottle and Childhood Obesity", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk provides an overview of the research on the association between infant feeding during the first year and the risk of childhood obesity. Discover what we’ve learned about the effects of feeding method on milk intake and feeding dynamics (breast versus bottle), how milk composition affects body function and appetite (human milk versus infant formula), and whether what’s in the bottle makes a difference. Also understand other factors that may affect the risk of obesity during childhood and beyond.
2) "Getting to Calm", Amy Shaw
Cool Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens and Teens.
3) "Postpartum Depression and Mother Burnout: Non-Medicated Strategies To Help", Kim Miller
This session will explore non-medicated strategies of coping with Mother “burnout”, postpartum depression and understanding the difference. The focus will be on a Mindfulness based exploration of thoughts, feelings, and needs. We will also touch briefly on sleep, diet, exercise, vitamins and neurobiochemistry. For example; Vitamin D is a crucial vitamin that plays a key role in neurotransmitters and trust me, if you live in Minnesota and use your sunblock, (like you should to avoid cancer), your Vitamin D levels are shockingly, appallingly low, get them tested!
4) "Teaching Children About Personal Safety/Media Use", Deb Roberts
We will discuss the ways parents can teach children to keep themselves safe, in the real world and online, and the current recommendations on media use by children.
5) "Supporting Your Breastfeeding Wife Has Nothing To Do With Being Her Bra", Jared Parks
Jared will be sharing some of the serious and humorous insights from fourteen years of marriage, crazy pregnancies, intense births, and educating children. This session, geared toward fathers as they strive to support their wives, will offer some valuable tools to improve parenting and family life. Learn about the benefits of supporting your breastfeeding wife and ways to bond with your baby.
2:45 pm - 3:45 pm: Session 4, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Navigating Insufficient Milk Supply", Jenni West
This presentation is geared towards those who offer lactation support to breastfeeding mothers. In addition to a technical discussion of low milk supply and possible strategies to support the breastfeeding dyad, we will discuss the emotional journey of the breastfeeding mother as she walks this path. Families are welcome to attend.
2) Getting Started Right with Positive Parenting", Maureen Campion
Positive discipline is based on trust and having a secure relationship with your child. From the first time you have to move their hands or tell them no, you are providing discipline. This workshop will provide some great ideas and practical tools for beginning to provide clear guidance to your child in the early years.
3) "Partners Panel" Panelists: Mike Fix, Eric Heinz, Amy Shaw, Aaron Svec; Moderator: Vickie Albright
This session is for anyone who wants to have a conversation about how breastfeeding supporters (dads, partners, grandparents, etc.) can help the breastfeeding mom and baby in the early weeks, months and even years. La Leche League partners and one grandmother will answer questions about how they support their loved ones and what tricks they've learned along the way to make having a new baby easier.
4) "Breastfeeding and Sexuality: Form and Function", Angie Sonrode
Being a nurturing mama while being a sexual mama: how can you manage both? Why does our society have such a difficult time seeing mothers as sexual beings? Let’s debunk the stigma that nursing mothers can’t also be sexual beings. Join the fun and come learn how the hormones of lactation affect your sex life and how we are wonderfully designed to remove sexual feelings from breastfeeding. We will also chat about language for partners to use in establishing ground rules for intimacy while nursing as well as ways to feel confident as a mother and a sexual partner. You can have it all...
5) Experience an LLL Meeting: "The Art of Breastfeeding and Avoiding Difficulties", Ingrid Kaufman
Have you ever wondered what an LLL meeting is like? Do you love attending LLL meetings and can't get enough? Join us for an LLL Series meeting! Ingrid Kaufman will be leading Meeting #3: The Art of Breastfeeding: Avoiding and Overcoming Difficulties. Come and get your breastfeeding questions answered, learn more about breastfeeding and bond with other breastfeeding mothers.
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm: Session 5, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Signing With Your Baby: Benefits and Basics", Barb Barrett
This session will give attendees an opportunity to understand the benefits of using ASL with hearing babies/toddlers, learn some basic signs, as well as hear about resources to further expand their ASL learning.
2) "Sibling Relationships", Deb Roberts
We will discuss the latest research about the significance of sibling relationships in our lives, as well as what parents can do about fighting, fairness and ways to reduce sibling rivalry.
3) "Becoming a La Leche League Leader", Deb Pladsen La Leche League Leaders are part of a tradition that goes back to the beginnings of humankind – one mother supporting another in the womanly art of breastfeeding. Are you a woman who has enjoyed breastfeeding her child/children? Would you like to share those joys with other nursing mothers? Have you experienced the advantages of this natural way of understanding and satisfying the needs of a baby? Then La Leche League leadership may be for you! Join us as we discuss what a Leader does, the preparation involved in becoming a Leader, and the requirements necessary to apply.
4) "Finding Peace in the Mommy Wars", Anne Casey
This session explores the history of the so-called “Mommy Wars,” including the way the media perpetuates conflicts between different groups of mothers and the emergence of breastfeeding as one of the central battlegrounds. We will discuss ways to defuse conflict, accept mothers’ choices, and make peace by finding the common ground of motherhood.
(breakouts subject to change)
Friday, May 2nd: "Health Care Provider Day"
8:30 am - 10:00 am: Session 1. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Simplifying Breastfeeding: The First 36 hours"
This session covers:
- Simple adjustments in position that make early breastfeeding easier
- How swaddling and separation affect a newborn
- How often a newborn should feed
- How your birthplace can support breastfeeding in both word and deed
10:15 am - 11:45 pm: Session 2. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Helping Mothers Who Exclusively Pump"
This session covers:
- The best, evidence-based strategies for establishing healthy milk production in mothers exclusively pumping for babies in special care
- Specific recommendations for scheduling pumping sessions, frequency and length
- Ways to individualize pumping plans based on breast storage capacityHow to be of most help to mothers who choose to pump and bottle-feed
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm: Session 3. Nancy Mohrbacher presents: "Working and Breastfeeding Made Simple"
This session covers:
- How length of maternity leave affects the challenge of working & breastfeeding
- How to calculate baby’s milk needs during the workday
- Why a baby may take more milk than mother pumps and what to do about it
- How to use the Magic Number concept to keep milk supply stable long term
2:15 pm - 3:30 pm: Session 4, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Transitioning to the Breast", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk is well suited to both breastfeeding specialists and parents and covers:
- Whether it’s ever too late for a baby to transition to the breast
- Basic strategies that can help any baby refusing the breast to make this transition
- Special considerations and strategies for premature babies
- How to help a baby wean off of a nipple shield
2) "Herbs and the Breastfeeding Dyad", Sheila Humphrey
This session seeks to bring a greater understanding about herbal medicine and the safe use of plants by the breastfeeding mother. It will review the safety record and evidence for the clinical use of galactogogue herbs and foods, as well as provide counseling guidance when helping mothers with low milk supply.
3) "Breastfeeding Multiples: Supporting Families with Inspiration and Practical Tips", Tiffany Gallagher
Families expecting twins, triplets, or more are faced with more hurdles to successful breastfeeding than typical expectant families. Discover what roadblocks these families may face and leave with information that you can use to inspire and inform families of multiples who wish to breastfeed.
3:45 pm - 5:00 pm: Session 5, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Using the International Code to Create Change", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk is suited to breastfeeding specialists and families. It covers:
- Why the International Code for the Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was created
- Other products whose marketing is restricted and why
- How companies can sell their products without violating this Code
- How some companies’ marketing practices undermine breastfeeding
2) "Herbs and the Breastfeeding Dyad", Sheila Humphrey
This session seeks to bring a greater understanding about herbal medicine and the safe use of plants by the breastfeeding mother. It will review the safety record and evidence for the clinical use of galactogogue herbs and foods, as well as provide counseling guidance when helping mothers with low milk supply.
3) "Fifty-Seven Years of Mother-to-Mother Support", Amy Shaw
A discussion of La Leche League philosophy, mission, and what makes LLL unigue. How LLL came to be and its evolving role through the years.
4) "Promoting Confidence in the Breastfeeding Mother", Vickie Albright
Mothers often struggle with breastfeeding due to a preconceived notion that it is difficult or painful. Fear and anxiety can become barriers to success. This session will discuss strategies, including laidback breastfeeding, to empower mothers to trust their breasts, their baby and the process of breastfeeding.
Saturday, May 3rd: "Family Day"
(breakouts subject to change)
9:00 am - 10:15 am: General Session 1. Nancy Mohrbacher presents "What Women Need to Breastfeed Exclusively"
Few barriers to exclusive breastfeeding are more challenging than mothers’ doubts in their ability to breastfeed and their unrealistic expectations of breastfeeding and baby behavior. Understand why so many mothers supplement with formula and the role of cultural beliefs in this decision. Also hear about how breastfeeding self-efficacy affects a woman’s feeding decisions and what women need to meet their breastfeeding goals.
10:45 am - 12:15 pm: Session 2, Breakout, options include:
1) "Understanding Breastfeeding Behaviors", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk includes video clips from an international cast of characters. Provides a chronological summary of recommended approaches to latch, with a description of what we got right and which assumptions were later disproved. Includes an overview of the hardwiring both mothers and babies bring to breastfeeding, a checklist for evaluating basic breastfeeding dynamics, and anatomical issues that can interfere.
2) "Happily Married, With Kids", Maureen Campion
Having a passionate and healthy marriages is one of the best gifts we can give our kids, but it isn't always easy. The early, intensive parenting years provide some real challenges to marriages. This workshop will review some of the research on best marriage practices and provide some ideas about staying connected and partnered in the childraising years.
3) "Listening From The Heart", Kim Miller
“Listening from the Heart” is an introduction to Nonviolent communication skills. The main emphasis is on listening in a way that leads to feeling identification. The importance of identifying feelings is that it gets away from the shame, blame, and pain, of right and wrong thinking that is so ingrained in us. By identifying feelings and connecting them to the unmet needs, Nonviolent communication provides a very efficient but also profoundly empathetic tool for conflict resolution and problem solving.
4) "Working and Breastfeeding", Jo Carrane
Many moms find themselves headed back to work in the weeks or months following the start of a new breastfeeding relationship. Whatever the reason for their return, good advice from a trusted LLL Leader or lactation professional can often mean the difference in whether that mom is able to continue her nursing relationship. This session will discuss the more common and less common questions of nursing moms working outside the home and the suggestions that can give them the tools to work through those challenges.
5) "Preparing for Birth and Early Breastfeeding: A Doula's Perspective", Sarah Marshall and Judith Nylander
There is more to a successful breastfeeding experience than the nuts and bolts of it. The Listening-Anticipating-Building (LAB) approach is a non-medical approach that places emphasis on the individual woman's (and family's) experience so that the breastfeeding experience is and feels successful to each woman. Come listen to how doulas implement LAB and how it can be integral to breastfeeding education and support.
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: Session 3, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Breast, Bottle and Childhood Obesity", Nancy Mohrbacher
This talk provides an overview of the research on the association between infant feeding during the first year and the risk of childhood obesity. Discover what we’ve learned about the effects of feeding method on milk intake and feeding dynamics (breast versus bottle), how milk composition affects body function and appetite (human milk versus infant formula), and whether what’s in the bottle makes a difference. Also understand other factors that may affect the risk of obesity during childhood and beyond.
2) "Getting to Calm", Amy Shaw
Cool Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens and Teens.
3) "Postpartum Depression and Mother Burnout: Non-Medicated Strategies To Help", Kim Miller
This session will explore non-medicated strategies of coping with Mother “burnout”, postpartum depression and understanding the difference. The focus will be on a Mindfulness based exploration of thoughts, feelings, and needs. We will also touch briefly on sleep, diet, exercise, vitamins and neurobiochemistry. For example; Vitamin D is a crucial vitamin that plays a key role in neurotransmitters and trust me, if you live in Minnesota and use your sunblock, (like you should to avoid cancer), your Vitamin D levels are shockingly, appallingly low, get them tested!
4) "Teaching Children About Personal Safety/Media Use", Deb Roberts
We will discuss the ways parents can teach children to keep themselves safe, in the real world and online, and the current recommendations on media use by children.
5) "Supporting Your Breastfeeding Wife Has Nothing To Do With Being Her Bra", Jared Parks
Jared will be sharing some of the serious and humorous insights from fourteen years of marriage, crazy pregnancies, intense births, and educating children. This session, geared toward fathers as they strive to support their wives, will offer some valuable tools to improve parenting and family life. Learn about the benefits of supporting your breastfeeding wife and ways to bond with your baby.
2:45 pm - 3:45 pm: Session 4, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Navigating Insufficient Milk Supply", Jenni West
This presentation is geared towards those who offer lactation support to breastfeeding mothers. In addition to a technical discussion of low milk supply and possible strategies to support the breastfeeding dyad, we will discuss the emotional journey of the breastfeeding mother as she walks this path. Families are welcome to attend.
2) Getting Started Right with Positive Parenting", Maureen Campion
Positive discipline is based on trust and having a secure relationship with your child. From the first time you have to move their hands or tell them no, you are providing discipline. This workshop will provide some great ideas and practical tools for beginning to provide clear guidance to your child in the early years.
3) "Partners Panel" Panelists: Mike Fix, Eric Heinz, Amy Shaw, Aaron Svec; Moderator: Vickie Albright
This session is for anyone who wants to have a conversation about how breastfeeding supporters (dads, partners, grandparents, etc.) can help the breastfeeding mom and baby in the early weeks, months and even years. La Leche League partners and one grandmother will answer questions about how they support their loved ones and what tricks they've learned along the way to make having a new baby easier.
4) "Breastfeeding and Sexuality: Form and Function", Angie Sonrode
Being a nurturing mama while being a sexual mama: how can you manage both? Why does our society have such a difficult time seeing mothers as sexual beings? Let’s debunk the stigma that nursing mothers can’t also be sexual beings. Join the fun and come learn how the hormones of lactation affect your sex life and how we are wonderfully designed to remove sexual feelings from breastfeeding. We will also chat about language for partners to use in establishing ground rules for intimacy while nursing as well as ways to feel confident as a mother and a sexual partner. You can have it all...
5) Experience an LLL Meeting: "The Art of Breastfeeding and Avoiding Difficulties", Ingrid Kaufman
Have you ever wondered what an LLL meeting is like? Do you love attending LLL meetings and can't get enough? Join us for an LLL Series meeting! Ingrid Kaufman will be leading Meeting #3: The Art of Breastfeeding: Avoiding and Overcoming Difficulties. Come and get your breastfeeding questions answered, learn more about breastfeeding and bond with other breastfeeding mothers.
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm: Session 5, Breakouts, options include:
1) "Signing With Your Baby: Benefits and Basics", Barb Barrett
This session will give attendees an opportunity to understand the benefits of using ASL with hearing babies/toddlers, learn some basic signs, as well as hear about resources to further expand their ASL learning.
2) "Sibling Relationships", Deb Roberts
We will discuss the latest research about the significance of sibling relationships in our lives, as well as what parents can do about fighting, fairness and ways to reduce sibling rivalry.
3) "Becoming a La Leche League Leader", Deb Pladsen La Leche League Leaders are part of a tradition that goes back to the beginnings of humankind – one mother supporting another in the womanly art of breastfeeding. Are you a woman who has enjoyed breastfeeding her child/children? Would you like to share those joys with other nursing mothers? Have you experienced the advantages of this natural way of understanding and satisfying the needs of a baby? Then La Leche League leadership may be for you! Join us as we discuss what a Leader does, the preparation involved in becoming a Leader, and the requirements necessary to apply.
4) "Finding Peace in the Mommy Wars", Anne Casey
This session explores the history of the so-called “Mommy Wars,” including the way the media perpetuates conflicts between different groups of mothers and the emergence of breastfeeding as one of the central battlegrounds. We will discuss ways to defuse conflict, accept mothers’ choices, and make peace by finding the common ground of motherhood.