Indira Lopez-Bassols

BA (Hons), MSc, IBCLC and PhD student

The Japanese word ikigai (生き甲斐) means life mission, or raison d'etre. My ikigai is to help mothers and families achieve their breastfeeding goals and serve the next generation of IBCLCs. For the past two decades, I have been involved in birth and breastfeeding support.

As a clinician International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, I have been leading the Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic which is part of the Merton Health Visiting team (Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust) for 6 consecutive years. Our service has gained GOLD accreditation (the highest level of accreditation for infant feeding and parent-infant relationships) from the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly initiative. The Clinic is for complex breastfeeding dyads and by GP/HV/RM/Infant Feeding Coordinator referral only. We are proud to share that our Clinic has won the 2023-2025 International Board Certified Lactation Consultant Community-Based Care Award. Our Merton Infant feeding team won the Innovators of the Year CLCH Staff Awards 2024.

As an Educator and the lead Lecturer of the international Art and Science of Breastfeeding course (previously known as the Breastfeeding London Course), I have been training future IBCLCs for the past 14 years. Our course has been been approved by the Open College Network London. I developed the popular Clinical Instruction Programme for our students.

My roles as Clinician and Educator have led me to the path of research. I am currently doing a PhD in Nursing & Midwifery within the Mother and Infant Research Unit, School of Nursing and Health Sciences, at the University of Dundee.

As the Director of the Centre for Breastfeeding Education and Research, I have published several articles in leading international peer-reviewed breastfeeding and human lactation journals. I also serve as a Peer-Reviewer for several International Breastfeeding journals.

I was awarded the National Institute for Health Research Fellowship(2021-2022) as part of the ARC NWL Improvement Leadership programme. My project examined how to offer more skilled breastfeeding and lactation care in the NHS nationally. We are about to conduct the first RCT in the NHS/UK to assess the impact of low laser therapy for breast pain.

I served in a voluntary capacity La Leche League GB for 17 consecutive years as a La Leche League Breastfeeding Counsellor. I co-led Cafe La Leche Merton, LLL South West London, West London and the Clapham groups.

In addition, I worked at Kings College Hospital's Tongue Tie Clinic. There, I gained competency in dividing restricted frenulums (posterior and anterior), assessment of restricted frenulums and their impact on breastfeeding and post division breastfeeding support and care.

I have a special interest in: oral dysfunction (I have completed the Beckman Oral motor Assessment and Intervention course), suporting infants with clefts and maternal mental health.

Published work:

• Providing excellence in lactation care: the Merton NHS Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic (peer-reviewed), published on the 15 of December, 2021.
• Three continents, two fathers, one donor: A non-puerperal relactation case study. Journal of Human Lactation (peer-reviewed), published on the 22 of April 2021.
• Assisted nursing: a case study of an infant with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate, Journal of Human Lactaton (peer-reviewed), published on the 18 of November 2020.
• The alchemy of connection: an essential ingredient when supporting breastfeeding dyads, Clinical Lactation Journal (peer-reviewed), Volume 10, Number 04, August 2019.
• Supporting breastfeeding, one mother and baby at a time. Community Practitioner, June 2013. To download click HERE
• Reclaiming the art of breastfeeding, Midwifery Today, Number 92, Winter 2010. To download click HERE
• The art of breastfeeding: lessons from Mexico, Juno, Issue 20, Spring 2010. To download click HERE
• Helping doulas help breastfeeding dyads,Doulaing: a Newsletter published for doulas by doulas, Doula UK, Autumn 2013 issue 21.
• What about next time? Helping a mother with low milk supply production plan for next baby, LC GB Newsletter 64, March 2013.
• Embracing the ILCA sisterhood, Lactation matters, 12 September 2013

Conferences/seminar/webinars presented:

• Gold Lactation Online Conference, The Research Parade: reviewing the latest evidence to apply it to your lactation practice, April 2025.
• Gold Lactation Online Conference, invited speaker to the panel on Evidence-Informed Lactation Care: Navigating Practice Among Research Gaps, April 2024.
• Gold Lactation Online Conference, The Research Parade: reviewing the latest evidence to apply it to your lactation practice, April 2024.
• Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Community Skills Day, live webinar: The IBCLC and the art of human connection, 22 of February 2023.
• UNICEF Baby-Friendly annual Conference, Poster:The Specialist Breastfeeding Clinic: creating a how-to manual to support Health Visiting and Midwifery, 22-23 of November 2022.
• Master Programme in Obstetrics and Midwifery Care, Dept of Obstertics & Gynaecology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Supporting breastfeeding in infants with clefts, September 2022.
• California Bay Area Lactation Associates, Supporting breastfeeding in infants with clefts, September 2022.
• Gold Lactation Online Conference, Assisted Nursing: Supporting Breastfeeding Infants With Craniofacial Anomalies, April 2022.
• Ilactation Breastfeeding 2020 Conference: Focus, Confidence, Skills, the Alchemy of Connection: an essential ingredient when supporting breastfeeding dyads, March 2020.
• The Breastfeeding Festival Milton Keynes, The Non-latching baby, September 2019
• The Milk Booster Conference for World Breastfeeding Week, Empower Parents, enable breastfeeding, Lagos, Nigeria, live stream, August 2019.
• University College, Anglo-European College of Chiropractic 2018 CPD Seminar "Musculoskeletal Issues in the Breastfeeding Neonate", keynote speaker and main presenter.
• Ilactation Spanish 2018 Conference Breastfeeding so natural, so special, speaker on Supporting non-latching babies.
• the 2018 European Lactation Consultants Conference in Holland, poster presenter: The alchemy of connection: supporting breastfeeding dyads.
• the ILactation Conference 2017: Breastfeeding in a changing world; speaker on Supporting non-latching babies.
• the UNICEF 2016 Annual update for Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust; Presenter on the "4 colics" (colic, reflux, intolerances/allergies and oversupply in the breastfed baby).
• a CPD 2017 Paediatric day for the Oxfordshire Osteopathic Network; Speaker on Ankyloglossia in the breastfed baby.
• How We Birth 2016 Seminar in Germany; Presenter on Breastfeeding basics and Tongue ties.

I am a member of the International Lactation Consultants Association (ILCA) and Lactation Consultants Great Britain.

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