CONFERENCE 2025

Dr Doreen Mazakpwe, IBCLC, MBChB, MSc. Human Nutrition Dr. Doreen is an international board certified lactation consultant, the first medical doctor in Uganda to receive this prestigious international credential. Doreen hails from Uganda, the pearl of Africa where she obtained her first degree in Bachelors of medicine and surgery, then went on to qualify as a clinical nutritionist after completing a Masters degree in Human Nutrition at the Uganda Christian University. In June 2023, she became accredited as an IBCLC. Her interest in breastfeeding and lactation support was unearthed and kindled when she had her first child in 2012 which came with a terrible experience with breastfeeding. Even with difficulties, she went on to exclusively breastfeed that child and subsequently 2 more children. The combined time of breastfeeding her three children is 6 years and 6 months years. She is the founder of Naturally Nourish, a company which seeks to empower mothers and their support persons to confidently nurture their children through provision of high quality maternal and child nutrition and support for the first one thousand days. She is also passionate about equipping health workers with clinical lactation management skills as part of maternity teams. To date, she has supported new and expectant mothers for over 1300 hours over the last 10 years, and has inspired, mentored and trained over 500 health workers. As a hospital lactation consultant, she has pioneered and contributed to significant changes in maternal and child care in keeping with the baby friendly hospital initiative. As a private practitioner, she is a trusted provider of high quality, compassionate breastfeeding support. She is a member of the International lactation consultants association (ILCA), Lactation consultants Association of Southern and Africa (LACSA). She currently gives oversight to the ATTA breast milk community team, volunteers as a committee member of the IBLCE Ethics and Disciplinary committee and was the chairperson of the IBLCE advancement committee. She is also involved in the BRANCH WHO clinical trial as the site lactation consultant and in the NUTRILEARN project in Uganda as a nutritionist and subject matter expert. When she is not supporting mothers with breastfeeding challenges, she loves to read, garden and spend time with her family and friends.