Medela's Breastfeeding & Lactation Symposium Series 2025

A Heartfelt Thank You!

Medela’s Breastfeeding and Lactation Symposium Series 2025 comes to an end with the last event of the year hosted in Lisbon, Portugal, in November 13th and 14. The event brought together 1,000+ maternal and infant health professionals in-person and virtually from across the globe, and we want to sincerely thank all participants for two remarkable days of scientific exchange and inspiration. Over the past weeks, we’ve heard so many enthusiastic voices from participants who shared how the lectures, panel discussions, and workshops sparked new ideas and motivated them to strengthen awareness and practice in their own units. Many mentioned the uplifting atmosphere, which continues to resonate far beyond Lisbon — and you were a big part of that!

On Day 1, the European hybrid event expanded on the theme “Empowering Perinatal Teams.” Global renowned experts, and healthcare providers shared new scientific evidence on novel advances in neonatal care and optimizing mother’s own milk volumes in at-risk populations. Participants exchanged best practices to bridge the gap toward 100% human milk and breastfeeding beyond discharge, and discussed approaches to strengthen lactation, breastfeeding, and parent-centered care within perinatal teams across Europe and beyond.

On Day 2, an opening keynote and three interactive workshops sessions actively engaged onsite participants to explore how best to strengthen perinatal team culture and equip care teams with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to lead meaningful change in their daily work. The expert speakers and moderators created a practical and relatable learning experience which was truly appreciated by the attendees.

Stay tuned! In the coming months, selected lectures will also be available as an online course via Medela University Breastfeeding & Lactation - global online education.

Highlighting Excellence: Medela Best Abstract Award Europe 2025

Congratulations to the team winner of the Medela Best Abstract Award Europe 2025 for the work titled “Results from a quality improvement study to increase breastfeeding in moderate- and late-preterm infants” in the Category Lactation Education and Training!

Prof. Sven Wellmann, from the University Children´s Hospital Regensburg, Germany, presented the key conclusions of the study on behalf of the team during the opening session of the Medela Breastfeeding & Lactation Symposium Series Europe in Lisbon on November 13th, 2025.

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As it happened: some impressions of the event

After the great success and long-lasting impact of the first Edition of the Medela’s European Breastfeeding and Lactation Symposium in Munich last year, we are pleased to announce our upcoming event: the Second European edition of Medela´s Breastfeeding & Lactation Symposium Series 2025, taking place on the 13 and 14 November, 2025 and hosted as a hybrid event with live-streaming from Lisbon, Portugal. This event is part of the Medela 17th Global Breastfeeding and Lactation Symposium Series focused on advancing lactation science to improve care.

The Symposium features a world-class two-day scientific agenda for healthcare professionals keen to learn about the latest scientific evidence in the field of human milk and lactation and to exchange best practices and strategies to improve the way perinatal teams work together to ensure quality of lactation care and infant feeding in Europe.

Click below to see the Details and Preliminary Agenda

Day 1 - Thursday, November 13th, 2025: Hybrid Symposium with live streaming and translation (ENG, POR, GER, IT, SPAN, FR). STAY TUNED - Registration to the online event is now open!

Six international speakers will provide most recent advances in the topics of neonatal care and how best to optimize mother´s own milk volumes in at-risk populations.
Bridging towards a perspective of care after discharge, four European experts will discuss firstly, on the need to strengthen specialized lactation support in small and sick newborns and secondly, on how to support the journey from the hospital to home from three different perspectives.
Three panel discussions will allow attendees to ask questions on-site and via our virtual platform and actively participate during the live sessions. A detailed agenda with speaker information will be available closer to date. Stay tuned!

Target audience: neonatologists, experts on breastfeeding, lactation, donor human milk, healthcare policy makers, midwives, nurses, scientists

PRELIMINARY AGENDA*

Time: 9:45 – 17:30 (TBC)

Language: lectures and discussion sessions will be held in English. In addition, registered attendees will have access to live-audio interpretation in Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Spanish via our virtual platform.

Time	Session/Lecture
9:45 – 10:30	Opening Session: Welcome and Introduction of Agenda
	Welcome Note of Local Host
	Medela Europe Abstract Award Presentation
10:30 – 11:40	Session 1: Novel Advances in Neonatal Care Opening: The evolving status of human milk: Food, signal, and medicine Lecture 1: How parent touch and use of mother’s own milk can impact procedural pain in neonates Lecture 2: The point-of-care concentration of mother’s own milk – an alternative to adding fortifiers? Lecture 3: Intranasal fresh mother’s own milk during brain injury?
11:40 – 13:00	Break
13:00 – 15:00	Session 2: Optimizing Mother’s Own Milk Volumes in At-Risk Populations Lecture 1: Identification of at-risk mothers: Aspects for clinical practice Lecture 2: Understanding secretory activation and how it informs lactation best practice Lecture 3: Having enough milk to sustain a lactation journey: A call to action and identification of clinical pathways
15:00 – 16:00	Break
16:00 – 17:30	Session 3: Bridging the Gap – Working Towards 100% Human Milk and Breastfeeding Beyond Discharge Lecture 1: Strengthening human milk banking and ensuring specialized lactation support in small and sick newborns Spotlight & Sofa Discussion: Parent perspectives At-risk infants At-risk moms

*Subject to change

Day 2 - Friday, November 14th, 2025: In-depth Expert Workshops - on site and per invitation only

A diverse group of healthcare experts, representing a range of disciplines involved in perinatal care will be assembled to participate on-site in Lisbon.
A group of well-known experts will lead active discussions in smaller and interdisciplinary groups during three in-person workshops. The main goal is to explore practical and feasible solutions to overcome the most recurring barriers/challenges that prevent tracking and increasing provision of own mother´s milk in neonatal units.
The main conclusions of these expert workshops will be summarized and presented to a wider audience during virtual events following the two-day European Symposium.