ASHA Learning Pass

This session shares effective strategies for SLPs working with infants whose parents’ goal is direct breastfeeding. The session aims to equip SLPs to support families in a safe transition to direct breastfeeding by sharing tools for at-breast assessment and flow-rate modification.

This course is a recorded session from the 2023 ASHA online conference Rethinking Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing.

Related Courses

See more sessions from Rethinking Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Identify three assessment strategies suitable for at-breast feeding evaluation
• Identify three ways to modulate milk flow during breastfeeding to accommodate infant deficits in suck/swallow/breathe coordination
• Identify four ways in which breastfeeding lays a foundation for future well-being across multiple domains (i.e., feeding, cognition, language, speech, immunity)

Presenter Information

Catherine Watson Genna, BS, IBCLC, has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1992. Her educational background in biomedicine led to a special interest in medically complicated breastfeeding and a research collaboration with Columbia University studying tongue kinematics, nipple biomechanics, and analysis of cervical auscultation in breastfeeding children. Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants, her transdisciplinary textbook, is in its fourth edition. She served as the founding associate editor of Clinical Lactation, USLCA’s official journal.

Financial Disclosures:

• Royalties on textbooks from Jones & Bartlett Learning and Praeclarus Press
• Translational Research Grant from Columbia-Coulter Foundation
• Speaker honoraria from various sources for continuing education lectures throughout the world
• Clinical mentor
• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation
• Lactation consultant in private practice

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• Research collaborative with Columbia University and Tel-Aviv University Departments of Biomedical Engineering, studying infant sucking using ultrasound, nipple biomechanics, and suck:swallow:breathe coordination
• Peer reviewer for various journals
• La Leche League Leader
• Consultant to student breastfeeding projects and breastfeeding product start-ups

Jamie Mahurin-Smith, PhD, CCC-SLP, IBCLC, has been a credentialed speech-language pathologist since 1995. Her early experiences with pediatric feeding concerns in infants whose mothers had hoped to breastfeed spurred her to seek certification as a lactation consultant; she has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 2004. She is on the faculty at Illinois State University; her research focuses in part on the experiences of breastfeeding dyads who encounter feeding challenges.

Financial Disclosures:

• Associate professor at Illinois State University
• Financial compensation from ASHA for this presentation

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• Researcher studying families’ experiences with breastfeeding challenges

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete and submit the learning assessment by the end date below.

Program History and CE Information

Online conference dates: March 22 – April 3, 2023, November 29 – December 11, 2023
End date: May 28, 2029

This course is offered for 0.15 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).