If you’ve visited my blog before, you know that I believe in human milk for human babies, and I have a deep understanding and empathy for those mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed their babies, for whatever reason. This week, World Milksharing Week, offers a perfect opportunity to highlight a beautiful story of…
I am often asked, through networks of professionals, to connect a reporter or media representative to breastfeeding mothers in a particular situation. There are some requests that I scramble to satisfy, without reservation, because either the journalist is one whose work I am familiar with (and is truly supportive of breastfeeding), or because the population…
This post is taken directly from an assignment for a class toward fulfillment of my Master of Public Health, Environmental Influences on Human Health. I seek to educate about dioxins, which are found in very high concentrations in human breastmilk. Dioxin exposure (perhaps in utero) has been shown to have a profound effect on mammary…
As an IBCLC in private practice, I am sometimes asked for solutions when a breastfed baby refuses to take a bottle after his mother has begun regularly separating for a return to work or school. This dilemma rouses an emotional response in me, because I experienced it to varying degrees with each of my three…
In 2006, I wrote this essay for This I Believe, which at the time was a regular feature on National Public Radio. My essay was never read aloud on NPR, perhaps because it wasn’t well-written, or maybe because the topic wasn’t ready for public consumption yet. At the time, I was advised not to tell…
You’re trying to not like me. You’re mad at me because I’m calling breastfeeding normal, and you didn’t breastfeed. Or you breastfed for awhile, it got complicated, so you weaned to artificial baby milk. Or you pumped your milk and fed it to your baby in a bottle, which wasn’t actually breastfeeding but was human…
normal, like breathing 