Annual Update 2024

You’re committed to providing evidence-based lactation care, but keeping up with all the latest research can be hard. This course has you covered. It delivers the most significant new lactation findings of 2023, along with protocol and policy updates, explained and analyzed by LER’s experienced instructors. And, it contains the information you need to integrate this new knowledge into the care you provide. 

Key Studies Explored

• Baby Friendly updates
• New research on infant mortality and breastfeeding rates
• Evidence on pediatricians’ interactions with infant formula company representatives
• New NICU research on interventions to improve breastfeeding at discharge, and a review of Encourage, Assess, Transition (EAT), a successful program that may move the needle on direct breastfeeding in the preterm population
• New studies on maternal metabolic health and lactation as well as cortisol and human milk
• New research on key breastfeeding management topics: nipple damage and topical oils, galactagogue use and efficacy, and infant swaddling 
• Equity research, including studies examining lactation barriers and facilitators for Black parents, the lack of care plans for equity in most hospitals, and the effectiveness of telephone lactation support, especially for at-risk groups
• New data on human milk and food insecurity around the world, along with implications for advocacy and policy
• And more

ABM, AAP, and Other Updates

• Practice implications of ABM Clinical Protocol #21 (Substance use and substance use disorder) and ABM Clinical Protocol #37 (Physiological Infant Care: Managing nighttime breastfeeding in young infants)
• Revisiting of ABM Protocol #36 (Mastitis Spectrum) following a study citing concerns
• New AAP guidelines on hyperbilirubinemia and neurotoxicity risk factors, including very positive news: The AAP now recommends weighing risks to establishment of breastfeeding and milk supply against any benefit of introducing formula supplementation to reduce bilirubin, and says the decision should be made jointly with parents, after discussion of risks and benefits

Your guides on this journey through 2023’s key lactation science developments are

Sekeita Lewis-Johnson, FNP-BC, IBCLC, Accredited Provider Program Director at LER and currently practicing as a lactation consultant in the metro Detroit area; and Julie Grimes, IBCLC, lactation care provider since 2009 and LER employee since 2016.

• 1 L-CERP
• 1 Nursing Contact Hour