2025 LLLC Healthcare Provider Conference

This presentation is a thought-provoking workshop that invites us to reflect on how we show up in our lactation support work, not just in what we do, but in how we are. Through the lens of ethics, lived experience, and relational awareness, we’ll explore what it means to truly “situate ourselves” in support conversations. Are we offering guidance from a place of connection, curiosity, or authority? Are we in intimate relationships or social ones, and does that distinction matter? This session encourages us to move beyond checklists and into presence, to consider how we learn, how we listen, and how our own identities shape the spaces we hold for others.

Stephanie George is Onyota’á:ka/A:no:wál (Oneida/Turtle Clan). Mom, wife, auntie, relative. Indigenous Midwife, IBCLC. Postpartum depression support person. Past President for International Lactation Consultant Association. Instructor at McMaster University. MSc Student in Health Science Education.

This presentation invites us to step into the stories behind the data ; the real, nuanced experiences of the nursing dyad that can’t be reduced to numbers. Qualitative research offers a powerful window into the lived realities of feeding, connection, and care, but it also raises important ethical questions: How are studies designed? Who decides what matters? And most importantly, whose voices are being heard, and whose are left out? This workshop explores the responsibility researchers carry in shaping narratives, interpreting meaning, and honouring the vulnerability of those who share their stories in the name of science and support.
 

Erin Northrup (she/her) is a dedicated La Leche League Canada Leader, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and a passionate speaker. With a background in Psychology (BA) and a Masters in Applied Health Services Research from the University of New Brunswick, Erin’s academic work has focused on the lived experience of breastfeeding after birth trauma, where she conducted in-depth qualitative research. Her journey into this field was deeply personal, sparked by the traumatic birth of her first child in 2009. Since then, Erin has been a steadfast advocate for maternal and infant health, offering support to parents throughout pregnancy, breastfeeding, and beyond. As the mother of five, she is deeply committed to creating a compassionate, ethical, and respectful approach to perinatal care and research.

This presentation explores what it truly means to honour autonomy in health care — not just in theory, but in practice. Through a compassion-focused, feminist lens, this workshop delves into the ethics of informed consent, asking: How do we ensure that the people we support genuinely understand their options? How do we communicate in ways that empower rather than overwhelm? And how can we assess understanding without assuming it? This session invites participants to reimagine consent not as a checkbox, but as an ongoing, relational process rooted in trust, clarity, and respect.

Alyssa (Lyss) Warmland is an interdisciplinary artist and activist. Her work utilizes elements of radical vulnerability, restorative justice, mindfulness, compassion, performance, and direct action.

She is a mother, La Leche League Canada Leader, Board member of La Leche League Canada, writer, podcaster, producer, director, performer, content creator, not-for-profit administrator, and abstract visual artist. Lyss is a strong advocate for fumbling towards an ethic of care, especially when it comes to the topics of birth, matresence, and grief. Most of all, she’s interested in the way people choose to tell their stories and how that keeps them well.

Lyss is currently pursuing her Masters of Counselling Psychology and plans to specialize in perinatal mental health. In her spare time, you can find her in the forest.

Lyss is a 34 year old white, queer, disabled woman who lives with her partner and two boys on Robinson-Huron (Treaty 61, 1850) land stolen from Omàmìwininìwag (Algonquin) and Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ Cree peoples.

This presentation shines a powerful light on a reality often overlooked in lactation care ; the experience of families in the North who face medical evacuations that separate them from their babies or communities. Using a map of Inuit Nunangat, this session offers important context around how healthcare is delivered across remote regions, why medevacs happen, and who is most impacted by these urgent relocations. Drawing from her own lived experience and the stories of other parents, presenter Aimee invites us into the emotional and practical complexities of maintaining lactation through distance and disruption. This presentation explores the far-reaching impacts of separation on the breastfeeding dyad and challenges us to think critically and compassionately about how we offer support when closeness is not an option.

Aimee Chaulk is a La Leche League Canada Leader in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, 1000 km by air from the nearest NICU. She is a mother to three girls aged 13, 8, and 5, and became a Leader following the birth of her second child. She is also the editor of an oral history quarterly, and in her spare time, can be found trying to live up to the phrase "be the change you want to see in the world."

This presentation explores the critical need for culturally safe, community-rooted care in addressing maternal health disparities within the Black population in Canada. This presentation will shine a light on the inequities in Black perinatal health outcomes and experiences, and introduce a model of care specifically designed to meet these challenges with intention, respect, and accountability. Grounded in both data and lived experience, the session will also examine the powerful impact of racially concordant care — when care providers reflect the identity and experience of the communities they serve — and how this connection fosters trust, empowerment, and better outcomes for Black birthing people and families.

Alexia Singh (she/her) is the Clinical Director of Ancestral Hands Midwives, where they provide racially concordant and culturally safe, perinatal care to Black pregnant individuals.

She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Midwifery at McMaster University, where her research focuses on culturally concordant care and its impact on reducing racial disparities in Black reproductive health.

She contributes to the broader birthing community as a hospitalist at Oak Valley Health’s Alongside Midwifery unit as well as a professionally elected Director for the College of Midwives of Ontario.

This presentation dives into the fascinating intersection of neuroscience and lactation through the lens of neurodivergent experiences. This presentation unpacks the why behind what’s happening in the body and brain — exploring the delicate dance between prolactin, estrogen, and dopamine, and how these hormones influence lactation and emotional regulation. We’ll look at how oxytocin and dopamine interact in both bonding and reward, and what that means for parents with ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent identities. From hypo- and hypersensitivity to challenges with executive function, this session offers insight into the real, lived experience of neurodivergent lactation — and how we can better support those navigating it.

Alixandra Bacon (BMW, MA), a Registered Midwife & Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia. She is Past President of the Canadian Association of Midwives and Midwives Association of BC. Alixandra created https://www.adhdpregnancy.ca. Alixandra and Dusty co-authored the ADHD And Pregnancy Workbook, & ADHD Postpartum workbook. Together they have travelled around the world educating health care providers and expectant families about ADHD/AuDHD and Autism in the perinatal period. Alixandra's favourite role is as neurodivergent mama to her 7 year old.

Dusty Chipura is an master certified AACC-accredited ADHD coach and certified doula based in Vancouver, BC. Dusty coaches adults from all backgrounds and walks of life and uses an anti-oppressive, anti-racist framework to make her approach to coaching more accessible and inclusive. Dusty has a special interest in ADHD and pregnancy. She has given several talks on managing ADHD during pregnancy and has published an 'ADHD and Pregnancy' journal and Notion template for pregnant individuals to download and use to help themselves manage their pregnancy, written in conjunction with Alix Bacon, president of the Canadian Association of Midwives. You can find Dusty featured on the HowToADHD YouTube channel talking about ADHD in pregnancy.