Carole Dobrich
Carole Dobrich is Australian born and was raised in a family where breastfeeding was how infants and children were fed. She trained at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and became a Registered Nurse in 1983. In 1985 she married a Canadian and moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She worked at St Mary’s Hospital Centre for many years in Obstetrics and her passion for helping mothers’ breastfeed evolved. In 1988 she had her 1st of 4 sons and although her own breastfeeding knowledge was up to date she realised that many health care professionals were not as up to date as she was at that time. This encouraged her to continue supporting breastfeeding families and also support her health care colleagues to gain further knowledge about lactation. In 1996 she became an IBCLC, one of ten in all the province of Quebec and one of only 4 who worked in private practice. In 2002 she joined with Lenore Goldfarb and Dr Perle Feldman to develop the first free lactation clinic offering the services of both an IBCLC and a medical doctor in Quebec. The Goldfarb Breastfeeding Clinic was initially a 1st line lactation service and has now developed into a referral only tertiary level lactation centre caring for breastfeeding families with complicated lactation problems. Carole is the Senior Lactation Consultant and co-director at the Herzl Family Practice Centre - Goldfarb Breastfeeding Clinic where she works with a team of IBCLCs and family physicians trained in lactation. MILC students are given an opportunity to spend a day of observation at the breastfeeding clinic. Carole is the past president of the association québécoise des consultantes en lactation diplômées de l’IBLCE (2004 – 2008) and is the current president of INFACT Quebec and is actively involved in breastfeeding advocacy work in Quebec, Canada and internationally.