Meet the EABM Board of Directors

EABM is led by a group of voluntary working physicians of varying specialties from different European countries. The Board meets once every month online and at least once a year physically. Each board member has a specific function. The board decides matters of policy, direction, strategy, and governance of the organization. The current EABM president is Elien Rouw.

Elien Rouw, MD
Elien Rouw, MDPresident

About Elien Rouw

I studied Medicine in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and have practiced Breastfeeding Medicine since 1981. Currently, I am President-Elect of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), director of an educational breastfeeding institute (DAIS) in Germany, member of the German National Breastfeeding Committee, and representative of ABM at the Global Breastfeeding Collective and WABA. I have served on Medical Advisory Boards of self-support groups in the Netherlands and Germany, and have published multiple scientific articles on several themes within Breastfeeding Medicine.
Reet Raukas, MD
Reet Raukas, MDTreasurer

About Reet Raukas

I graduated from the University of Tartu as a paediatrician and for more than 30 years I have worked as a neonatologist. Since the mid-1990-ies my main field of interest has been infant and young children feeding, especially breastfeeding. I am a member of Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine since 2010. I have counseled breastfeeding parents and lectured breastfeeding to health care workers. I have been a member of working group to compile Estonian Nutrition Recommendations. I have written several books and articles about children’s health and feeding. I am a member of the Estonian Breastfeeding Promotion Committee.
Mónica Pina, MD
Mónica Pina, MDSecretary

About Mónica Pina

I graduated from the University of Padova in 1997. I specialized in Internal Medicine, training in the Hospital Egas Moniz, Lisbon, Portugal. When I became a mother, I realized that I had too little knowledge of breastfeeding. I realized the importance of peer-to-peer support, and became a La Leche League leader, one of the few in Portugal. But being a doctor, I realized there was dire need of medical advice in breastfeeding and that made me concentrate on the medical point of view of lactation. I started training other health professionals in the Unicef breastfeeding counselling courses. I became an Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine member in 2010. I have a passion for sharing knowledge, specially on subjects that involve both my internal medicine training and breastfeeding medicine. I also have a special interest on the humanistic and social perspectives of breastfeeding. I hope that with the European Association of Breastfeeding Medicine we can increase the dialogue among european doctors, and raise the awareness that breastfeeding is indeed something that should be present in doctors’ basic knowledge.

Michal Mansovsky, MD
Michal Mansovsky, MDBoard Member

About Michal Mansovsky

I graduated from BGU, Israel, in 2009, and by 2013 specialized in family medicine. I have been practicing breastfeeding medicine since 2009, and received my Fellowship in BF Medicine in 2019. I was a member of the organizing committee of ABM meetings in Europe since 2017. Since 2018, I am a founding and active board member of IABM – the Israeli Association of Breastfeeding Medicine, and currently, I am secretary of the IABM board. I practice BF Medicine in the north district of Israel and teach breastfeeding to physicians and health care workers all over Israel.

I am happy to be a founding member of EABM. I hope to bring more knowledge in breastfeeding medicine to physicians, and by doing so to help provide better medical support for breastfeeding dyads across Europe.

Lara Tauritz Bakker, MD
Lara Tauritz Bakker, MDBoard Member ICT

About Lara Tauritz Bakker

I graduated from Erasmus University in Rotterdam in January 2021 and am now training to become a family physician. I was inspired to go to medical school after all, when I discovered how little scientific knowledge we have to deal with breastfeeding problems while writing as a science journalist for a major medical magazine (Medisch Contact). I became a student member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine in 2014 and helped organize the European ABM conference in 2018. My master’s thesis, published in Journal of Human Lactation in 2020, focused on the prescription of domperidone by family physicians in cases of lactation insufficiency. Through EABM, I hope we can connect many more doctors who are interested in breastfeeding medicine, empower them through knowledge dissemination and increase research in the fascinating field of breastfeeding medicine.