1 L-CERP (Domain V: Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology)
1 Nursing Contact Hour
This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the Virginia Nurse’s Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This enduring material is approved from June 15, 2026 to June 14, 2028.
US$ 20
Recent updates to breastfeeding recommendations around the world have brought national guidance into closer alignment with World Health Organization standards, prompting renewed attention to how breastfeeding is supported across social and workplace contexts. This webinar examines these updated recommendations alongside trends in breastfeeding rates among women over time, with particular attention to how these trends intersect with women’s labour force participation.
The webinar conceptualises breastfeeding as a distinct form of reproductive labour – one that entails dual and often competing demands for productivity: producing human milk while simultaneously producing value in paid work. Through this lens, the webinar explores how workplace structures, policies, breastfeeding recommendations, and cultural expectations shape breastfeeding experiences and outcomes.
The webinar will provide actionable recommendations for International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC®) and other lactation advocates, highlighting the IBCLC’s critical role in global advocacy, policy alignment, and systems-level change. Practical strategies will be discussed for supporting breastfeeding employees, including the importance of adequate parental leave, responsive and flexible workplace practices, and advocacy environments that recognise and accommodate the realities of breastfeeding as both care work and labour.
By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Recognise how breastfeeding recommendations have shifted over the past four to five decades and how breastfeeding rates have been affected.
- Explain how the dual demands of work and breastfeeding have intensified for breastfeeding parents.
- Compare the unique qualities of breastfeeding as labour to other types of caregiving and domestic work
- Describe how breastfeeding parents are combining breastfeeding and work through logistics, challenges, and successes
- Demonstrate the role of the lactation advocate in supporting breastfeeding employees and the role of the IBCLC as a global advocate for breastfeeding employees
Available on demand. Registration required.
Speaker: Katherine Johnson, PhD
Dr Katherine Johnson is a professor at Tulane University School of Liberal Arts where she is the Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Johnson received a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, a M.A. in Sociology and a PhD in Sociology and Demography with a Women’s Studies Certificate from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Johnson is a frequent speaker, a prolific researcher, a mentor, and the author of both peer-reviewed articles and her 2023 book titled Undoing Motherhood? Collaborative Reproduction and the Deinstitutionalization of US Maternity.
Pursuant to the IBCLC® certification programme’s third-party accreditor’s standards and credentialing best practices, the presenter for the webinar does not have access to IBCLC examination content nor participates in IBCLC examination development. The IBCLC certification programme is governed and administered by the IBCLC Commission.