Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC Ithaca, NY
Expertise
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Language of Breastfeeding
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Latching Theory and Techniques
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Mammals and Breastfeeding
Previous Conferences
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LLL, Beijing Gynecological and Obstetrics Hospital, Hayimom Doula Service CenterNovember 19, 2011 - November 20, 2011Beijing,China
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Japanese Association of Lactation ConsultantsNovember 13, 2011Nagoya,Japan
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LLL Hong KongNovember 10, 2011Hong Kong S.A.R., China
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Taiwan Breastfeeding Organization and LLL-TaiwanNovember 6, 2011Taipei,Taiwan
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Parkside Lactation ServicesSeptember 8, 2011 - September 9, 2011Bayside,New York,United States
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Western Kentucky Breastfeeding CoalitionAugust 26, 2011Bowling Green,Kentucky,United States
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Eastern Kentucky Breastfeeding CoalitionAugust 24, 2011Paintsville,Kentucky,United States
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LLL West USAAugust 4, 2011Denver,Connecticut,United States
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Maryland WICJune 21, 2011Laurel,Maryland,United States
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Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware CountyJune 9, 2011Oneonta,New York,United States
About the Speaker
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, has a private practice in Ithaca, NY. She is co-author, with Diana West and Teresa Pitman, of the 8th edition of La Leche League International's Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Other publications include chapters in Genna's Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants, Smith's The ABC's of Private Practice, and assorted articles and essays.She also self-publishes a collection of breastfeeding handouts on CD, most of which are also on her website, www.normalfed.com. "Wiessingerizing" - normalizing breastfeeding - has become a verb in some circles.
Official Bio for Brochure
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, is a co-author of the 8th edition of the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and author and contributing author of numerous breastfeeding resources. A La Leche League Leader since1985 and IBCLC since 1990, she is a frequent speaker, in the US and abroad, on the mechanics, behaviors, and support systems involved in successful breastfeeding.
Presentations
This speaker is pleased to provide presentations on the following topics to professional and parenting conferences. Presentations on other topics may be available upon request and subject to sufficient development lead-time. (For CERP topics, required paperwork will be provided promptly to meet CERP deadlines.)
What Would Mammals Do?
What happens to infant feeding when mammals are deprived of their chosen place, time, and sensations of birth? What if the birth is too hard… or too easy? The not-so-surprising implications our mammalian ancestry has for how we give birth and begin the process of mothering in modern America.
This talk covers birth, breastfeeding, starting solids, weaning, and the mother-baby relationship. It resonates extremely well with audiences, is perhaps the most important talk that I do, and is appropriate, surprising, and informative for both breastfeeding and birthing specialist audiences.
Watch Your Language!
Our word choice often promotes formula-feeding. Even the researchers get it wrong! Learn how words like "still", "but", and "ideal" can undermine breastfeeding, look at how research outcomes change when the focus changes, and begin to develop a new and truly supportive language.
A breastfeeding culture must also have a strong sense of breastfeeding as our biological norm. So far, we frame almost everything as if formula feeding were safe and normal. It takes a while to learn to reframe our thinking; there's no better time to start than now!
Everything Old is New Again: Updates on Latching
Babies haven't changed, but our understanding of how they attach to the breast certainly has! A journey through more than 20 years of visuals and text, to the latest, surprisingly simple, conclusions.
Participants may start in any of a number of places along the "understanding path". This talk is designed to help move participants from wherever they are to a more confident, simpler, more mother-and-baby-friendly understanding of how babies attach to the breast.
Tigers Through Hoops -The Baby Who Won't Latch
Baby's normal, mother's normal, but something's going on in that baby's head that keeps him from breastfeeding. How can we persuade the "psychological non-latcher" that he wants to breastfeed?
This is not about the baby who can't breastfeed for physical reasons, though I spend a bit of time on that, but the baby who's been traumatized in some way so that he won’t latch. I talk about some really unusual things that have worked besides time and patience and skin-to-skin, and about our need for tools that haven't yet been created. I'm reassured by the notion that if we can get a tiger to jump through a hoop - something it's absolutely not designed to do - then we can certainly help babies begin to breastfeed, since they're absolutely designed to. This one could be expanded into a workshop to allow the audience to tell their standard and unusual stories about "psychological non-latchers."
Everything Else About Breasts
A look at fashion through the ages, health claims and their possible problems, lymph drainage, breast surgery, and breast cancer. There's even a little bit about breastfeeding.
This talk covers territory we may never even have considered, no matter how many years we've been "thinking about breasts." It may even change how participants think about their own.
Establishing a Free Breastfeeding Clinic
Four private practice IBCLCs in a small city established a one-hour weekly free breastfeeding clinic. Our reasons, formation, expectations, “ground rules”, and surprising (though clearly positive) outcome are discussed. The talk includes video comments from the other three participants, and allows time for participants to share their own thoughts and experiences.
The four of us started with a common, medical-model vision for the clinic, but the mothers themselves took it in a different direction. Our reactions to that new direction have all been different, but we're agreed that the clinic itself is an excellent addition to breastfeeding help in our community, we hope to continue it indefinitely, and we feel it's adaptable to almost any community.
US Birth vs Research Realities
Jocelyn is a real woman who had three very different birth experiences. This talk is a transcription of her recounting, accompanied by slides that dispute or support the actions taken along the way. There is time at the end for story-sharing and brainstorming large or small actions that each of us can take to improve birth in the US.
Jocelyn's stories of her hospital, birth center, and home births were so compelling that I asked if I might type while she talked. Most women can relate to her experiences, and most of us can find ways to smooth the path for the mothers yet to be. Especially good for smaller groups.
Sleeping Together: History, Biology, Politics
Is sleeping with a baby risky? A look at primates, our past, electricity, definitions, settings, research, and the critical differences between breastfeeding and bottle-feeding. Bottom line: There is no known increase in risk when a non-smoking, sober, breastfeeding mother sleeps with her baby on a safe surface.
This talk draws comparisons between how we make car trips safe for infants and how we ought to think about sleep issues. Participants can evaluate various safe sleep handouts using a simple checklist.
