Session Information for the Virtual Healthcare Provider Seminar April 23, 2026
The Roots of Racial Inequities: Supporting Black People Who Breastfeed Through Culturally Relevant Care and Self-Reflection
Tomeika Frieson, MPH
Objectives:
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Explain historical and present-day individual and systemic barriers to breastfeeding, identifying examples of bias in patient care, and understanding the impact of bias on the patient and patient-provider relationship.
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Describe how to foster a patient-provider relationship that is supportive of Black individuals and the families of Black individuals who breastfeed, strategizing about how to do this in one’s own practice.
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Identify at least three ways a provider can implement the concepts from this session to address racism in breastfeeding care for Black families on an individual and/or systems level.
Ethics Pulse Check: The Crossroads of the International Code, Racism-Based Health Disparities and Lactation Support
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
Objectives:
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Describe a professional conflict of interest for a health care provider involving a product falling under the scope of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
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Identify how structural and institutional forms of racism impact health (e.g., create disparities) for Black, Brown, and Indigenous families in the USA.
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Describe how commercial marketing techniques, even of products falling outside the International Code, are intended to influence clinical behaviors for lactation specialists.
Operationalizing Maternal Health Equity: Doula Partnerships and Lactation Training as Mechanisms for System Change
Daileann Hemmings, DNP, RN, CLC, CCM
Objectives:
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Summarize the Maternal Health Equity program’s design and its implementation of actions to identify, address, and reduce disparities in maternal health.
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Describe the importance of doula support in maternal care equity and steps to ensure integration/collaboration with the perinatal care team.
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Identify interventions to increase the number of IBCLCs that reflect the community to be served and improve lactation support, education and resources for all expectant and new parents.
Allergy Management in Human Milk Fed Infants
Hope Lima, PhD, RDN, IBCLC
Objectives:
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List two signs/symptoms that may indicate the need for referral to a dietitian to oversee an elimination diet.
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Describe the difference between an IgE and non-IgE mediated allergic response.
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List diagnostic criteria for FPIAP, FPIES, and GERD.
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Define the basic structure of an elimination diet.
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Describe the possible impacts of unaddressed dietary allergen exposure in the breastfed infant.



