Training Courses

Helen directs the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre, & the Baby Sleep Information Source (BASIS) at Durham University. In 2016 she was appointed as Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Lullaby Trust.

Her work examines the sleep ecology of infants and their parents including attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological interactions of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural and biological sleep needs.

Victoria qualified from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and completed her paediatric training in Birmingham and across the northeast of England.

She started as a consultant at the Great Northern Children’s Hospital and works as a general paediatrician as well as working on the nutrition team. She has a particular interest in feeding in babies and in children with complex medical needs.

Wendy is one of the founding members of the Breastfeeding Network and has been its resident pharmacist for over 20 years. .

Her work setting up the drugs in breastmilk information service was recognised with an OBE, and she has authored over 50 information sheets and several books on the topic.

Dave’s research interests revolve around how play relates to learning, particularly in infancy and early childhood. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Cambridge for which he studied mothers’ play interactions with their 1- to 2-year-old infants. From August 2017 to August 2018 he was part of Roberta Golinkoff’s Child’s Play, Learning & Development Lab at the University of Delaware.

In addition to his research, he has acted as a consultant on play and learning for The LEGO Foundation and Skylark Learning Ltd., and given research advice or briefings to the US Military Operations Research Society and the UK Houses of Parliament.

Amber is a Level 3 certified personal trainer and founder of Lovefit, a company dedicated to offering safe and effective pre and postnatal fitness solutions.

She is trained in many elements of pregnancy and postnatal exercise, and focuses on helping women to recover their pelvic and core strength and to celebrate their postpartum bodies.

Lisa-Marie is an independent NMC registered midwife, a member of the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nurses, FEDANT, the Association of Radical Midwives, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers and the Association for Improvements to Maternity Services, and edited the Midwifery Matters journal for four years.

Her passions are supporting families through their entire journey into parenthood using evidence based and holistic practice, particularly to support informed decision making.

Amy Brown is based in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK where she is Director of ‘LIFT’ – the centre for Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translation. With a background in psychology, she first became interested in the many barriers women face when breastfeeding after having her first baby.

Three babies and a PhD later she has spent the last fifteen years exploring psychological, cultural and societal barriers to breastfeeding, with an emphasis on understanding how we can shift our perception of breastfeeding from an individual mothering issue, to a wider public health problem. Professor Brown has published over 100 papers and five books.