SHANDA LEAR, CLE, IBCLC, RETIRED

Lactation Educator and International
Board Certified Lactation Consultant (Retired)

For 20 years while Shanda Lear was raising her three children, she became a pioneer in the field of breastfeeding science. Yes, there is now a medical journal of human lactation!

Shanda Lear also consulted to the entertainment industry. She advised directors how to shoot breastfeeding scenes that look natural, discreet and non-offensive. It is particularly important, now that the disadvantages of bottle feeding are known, that breastfeeding be depicted as the feeding method of choice.

She was the first in Europe to become certified by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and founded the Informed Parenthood Association of Nevada with the aim of assisting young couples with problems that confront them on the arrival of a first child. Working in collaboration with physicians, the organization expanded to California and Utah.

Founder of the La Leche League in Italy, an international non-profit organization that promotes breastfeeding, Shanda Lear worked with this volunteer self-help group for 15 years throughout the U.S. and Switzerland. She lectured university medical students in Milan, Parma and Naples, conducted courses for nurses at various training schools and collaborated with national and international health organizations. Invited to teach the entire staff of the pediatric Hospital of Mendrisio in Switzerland she was instrumental in improving their rate of breastfeeding initiation to 97%. She also created a program in Milan to prepare high school students for the responsibilities of feeding and caring for babies.

Shanda Lear is the author of "Little Guide For Healthy Nutrition For Mothers And Babies" which is distributed by the Italian Swiss Health Department. She also co-authored the book "How To Cope With Babies." in Italian and Published by Mondadori (it is currently out of print); Recommended to parents by doctors and nurses, this book contains valuable information on the practical aspects of child rearing. The predominant emphasis of the book is establishing a sense of self worth in the child, resulting in better behavior and fewer problems of training and discipline.

As a Lactation Educator, Shanda Lear taught breastfeeding classes in doctors offices, and clinics. Today she is a part-time Practitioner of Spiritual Healing and is called upon often to take mother and baby cases.

She may be contacted through: