Our Milky Way

In celebration of National Breastfeeding Month and continuing with our mission and focus to support families in their breastfeeding journeys, Healthy Children Project would like to announce another round of full scholarships in the Accessing the Milky Way initiative!

In August of 2020 Healthy Children Project announced our initiative called Accessing the Milky Way. The goal of the initiative was to provide Black, Indigenous, and other people of color with scholarships for the Lactation Counselor Training Course. Since then, we have offered six rounds of scholarships and awarded over 120 full scholarships and 30 partial scholarships.

Each scholarship awarded will cover tuition costs for the Lactation Counselor Training Course. Additionally, Jones and Bartlett, the publishers of the required textbook, The Pocket Guide to Lactation Management, have graciously donated textbooks for each recipient. Recipients of the scholarship will be responsible for the cost of the CLC exam administered by the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice.

We explicitly welcome individuals from racially and ethnically marginalized communities and/or historically underrepresented communities, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, and all Hispanic or Latinx individuals. You can apply by following the link below and filling out the form on our website.

Please only apply once during each round. Any duplicate applications will be disregarded and only the first one received for any individual will be reviewed.

Applications will be open through August 14, 2026.

APPLY HERE! 

Healthy Children Project is proud to support those who want to help mothers and babies!

A few days ago, I was sitting in a local coffee shop when I noticed a mother breastfeeding her baby.

It wasn’t a dramatic moment. There were no stares, no confrontation, no applause. Just a mother and her baby sharing a quiet moment together while the rest of the world carried on around them.

I smiled to myself. As a lactation professional, I’ve spent years thinking of families and how to help them navigate breastfeeding—from the overwhelming first hours after birth to the many questions and challenges that arise in the weeks and months that follow. Seeing a mother confidently breastfeeding in public always makes me happy. Every time it happens, it helps normalize something that is both biologically ordinary and profoundly important.

I thought about walking over.

I imagined saying something simple:

“You’re doing a wonderful job.”

“Your baby looks so content.”

“Thank you for helping normalize breastfeeding.”

Nothing more. No advice. No interruption. Just a few words of encouragement from one woman to another.

But then I hesitated.

What if she wanted privacy? What if I interrupted a peaceful feeding? What if she thought it was strange that a stranger approached her?

So, I stayed where I was.

Eventually she finished feeding, packed up her things, and left.

I’ve thought about that moment several times since.

Not because I believe I missed some life-changing opportunity, but because I know how powerful encouragement can be—especially for breastfeeding mothers.

Many mothers spend their breastfeeding journey wondering if they’re doing enough. They question whether their baby is getting enough milk. They worry about feeding in public. They hear conflicting advice from family, friends, social media, and sometimes even healthcare providers. They often carry an invisible mental load while trying to care for another human being.

Sometimes all it takes is one kind comment to remind someone they’re doing better than they think.

I’ve heard mothers remember encouraging words years after they were spoken.

A cashier who smiled instead of staring.

An older woman who quietly said, “I breastfed my babies too.”

A fellow parent who simply said, “You’re doing great.”

Those moments stay with people.

Of course, encouragement should always respect boundaries. Not every mother wants conversation while feeding, and that’s okay. A warm smile across the room may be exactly what’s welcome. Sometimes simply treating breastfeeding as completely normal is the greatest support we can offer.

Still, I wish I had trusted my instincts.

I wasn’t hoping to congratulate her for doing something extraordinary. Breastfeeding shouldn’t require courage simply because it happens in public. My hope was to acknowledge something our culture too often overlooks—that nurturing a baby deserves support, not silence.

As I reflected on that morning, I realized something else.

We often assume people know they’re doing well. We assume someone else will encourage them. We assume there will be another opportunity.

Sometimes there isn’t.

The experience reminded me that kindness doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be as simple as a smile, a nod, or a few sincere words.

Next time, I think I’ll say hello.

Not because breastfeeding mothers need strangers’ approval, but because every parent deserves to know that someone sees the care they’re pouring into their child.

Our communities become stronger when we support families in small, everyday ways. Encouragement costs nothing, yet it can lighten someone’s day in ways we’ll never fully know.

So, if you happen to see a mother breastfeeding, remember that your reaction matters.

You don’t need to make a scene. You don’t need to offer advice.

Simply treating breastfeeding as normal—and, when the moment feels right, offering a genuine word of encouragement—can help create a world where parents feel supported rather than judged.

I missed my chance that day.

I hope I won’t miss the next one. I hope that mother has a joyful journey along the Milky Way.

The first hour after birth is a critical time for infants and mothers. During this brief but powerful window, a healthy newborn possesses remarkable instinctive abilities that can help initiate breastfeeding and support lifelong health.

A new study by Drs Karin Cadwell, Anna Blair, Scovia Nalugo Mbalinda, and Kajsa Brimdyr, published in Early Human Development (2026), provides compelling evidence that newborns who succeed in crawling behavior during uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact are significantly more likely to breastfeed effectively following birth.

What makes the first hour so critical?

Immediately after birth, healthy newborns are biologically programmed to seek the breast. When placed skin-to-skin on their mother’s chest, babies progress through a series of instinctive behaviors known as The Nine Stages. These stages include the birth cry, relaxation, awakening, activity, crawling, rest, familiarization, self-attachment, and suckling. Research has shown that these behaviors emerge naturally when mother and baby remain together in immediate, continuous, and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact.

The crawling stage occurs when a newborn uses crawling movements to move toward the breast. They are then able to locate the nipple, self-attach, and begin suckling without assistance.

While all nine stages can take up to an hour or longer, they represent one of the earliest demonstrations of infant competence and self-regulation.

What Did the New Study Find?

Cadwell and colleagues examined the relationship between newborn the specific stage of crawling behavior during the first hour after birth and breastfeeding effectiveness postpartum.

Their findings revealed that infants who successfully crawled during skin-to-skin contact were more likely to demonstrate effective breastfeeding after birth compared with infants who did not crawl.

Why Does Crawling Matter?

At first glance, a baby slowly inching across a parent’s chest may seem simple. However, this behavior reflects a sophisticated integration of neurological reflexes, sensory processing, motor development, and feeding readiness.

During the breast crawl, newborns are exposed to multiple sensory cues:

• The familiar scent of amniotic fluid and breast secretions
• The warmth of their mother’s skin
• The sound of their mother’s heartbeat and voice
• Tactile stimulation across the entire front of their body

These sensory experiences help activate innate feeding behaviors and prepare the infant for breastfeeding.

Researchers have suggested that allowing infants to self-attach may promote a deeper neurological learning experience than assisted latching alone. The process may help babies develop effective positioning, oral motor coordination, and feeding behaviors that support breastfeeding beyond the first feed.

The Importance of Uninterrupted Skin-to-Skin Contact

Routine procedures such as weighing, bathing, measurements, or unnecessary handling can interfere with the infant’s progression through the nine instinctive stages.

The World Health Organization recommends immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact after birth and encourages delaying non-urgent procedures until after the first breastfeeding is completed. Evidence shows that babies who experience skin-to-skin contact in the first hour are more likely to breastfeed successfully and exclusively in the weeks and months that follow.

Despite these recommendations, many newborns worldwide are still separated from their mothers shortly after birth, preventing completion of these biologically imperative behaviors. Research has found that fewer than half of newborns globally begin breastfeeding within the first hour of life.

A Shift in How We View Newborns

Perhaps the most profound implication of this research is what it teaches us about newborn capabilities.

For many years, maternity care practices focused primarily on what healthcare providers should do to and for babies. This study reminds us to consider what babies are biologically prepared to do for themselves when given the opportunity.

When healthcare systems protect this critical first hour after birth and allow these behaviors to unfold naturally, babies often show us exactly what they are capable of doing.

Implications for Maternity Care

The findings support several evidence-based maternity care practices:

• Immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth
• Continuous and uninterrupted contact until the first breastfeed
• Delaying routine procedures until after the first feeding
• Avoiding unnecessary assistance with latching unless clinically indicated
• Educating families about normal newborn feeding behaviors
• Supporting Baby-Friendly maternity care practices

By creating an environment that protects normal newborn behaviors, healthcare providers can help increase breastfeeding success and improve maternal-infant outcomes.

The Bottom Line

This new study by Cadwell, Blair, Mbalinda, and Brimdyr adds powerful evidence to what decades of skin-to-skin research have demonstrated: newborns are born ready to breastfeed.

When healthy infants are placed skin-to-skin immediately after birth and allowed to progress to the crawling—they are more likely to breastfeed effectively postpartum.

The message is simple but profound: sometimes the most effective intervention is not doing more, but protecting the time and space for biology to unfold as nature intended.

Donna Walls, RN, BSN, CLC, ANLC

Years ago, when my husband and I were in Italy visiting Trevi Fountain, I noticed a mom with a baby in her arms, nursing. To my utter surprise and joy I saw a man stand up and gesture to her to take his seat. Wow, it was so heartwarming! Would that happen here in the US? More likely she may have noticed glaring, snickering or maybe even unwelcome comments. How sad that our culture hasn’t learned to accept, or better yet welcome, nursing mothers.

On an even more disheartening note, there are laws protecting breastfeeding moms.  Wow, we need laws protecting a mom’s rights to feed her baby? Currently, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have laws allowing women to breastfeed in public or private locations. Public Indecency Exemptions (are you kidding me?!) exist in 31 states and Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands explicitly exempt breastfeeding from indecency laws. Whew! So nice of them the recognize that breastfeeding is not “indecent”!

Is it our Puritan history that considers the breasts as sexual, to be hidden? Strangely, women breastfed freely in early American times and frequently for up to two years of age. Indigenous cultures honor and respect breastfeeding as nourishing and nurturing the offspring, and consider it an honor to be able to breastfeed their babies.

Technology and science brought about changes in infant feeding in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Formulas and breastmilk substitutes became available in the nineteenth century, originally developed to feed the orphans in institutions. By the late 1800s factories began processing infant formulas, with Abbott Labs increasing the manufacturing and marketing of formulas by the 1920s.The profession of Pediatrics was, in part, first developed for the overseeing of artificial infant feeding and the belief was that this new, scientific method lent itself to better nutritional control and provided mothers with more independence. More aggressive marketing to families and physicians was, to say the least, successful.

When World War II began more women were working outside of the home and the use of infant formula was rising with breastfeeding becoming viewed as inconvenient and “old fashioned”. As the changing perspective of formula feeding continued, there also came about an attitude that higher socioeconomic, more well-educated women were choosing not to breastfeed.

Another significant influence we saw in that era was the sexualization of breasts promoted in men’s magazines and in the media focusing on the sexual function of breasts and diminishing the function of lactation.

So here we are today. As a lactation care provider for 40 years I have seen an improvement in attitudes and support for breastfeeding over the last 10-20 years. But, we are not even close to the attitude I saw in Europe. There is, what seems like, unlimited money available for marketing and advertising formula feeding with little resources for promoting breastfeeding. How can we make breastfeeding the norm, the expected way to feed our newborns?

First, we need to see more breastfeeding–it needs to be normalized! There are beautiful works of art depicting breastfeeding; use them whenever you can. Then, talk about breastfeeding–let people know about the benefits to both mother and baby. For example, in breast cancer support circles, let people know that breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer.

Formula feeding is often promoted as being convenient, so maybe we also need to talk about the difference between preparing bottles at night compared to the ease of nursing at night. Don’t be afraid to talk about the well-documented benefits of breastfeeding when infant-related conversations arise; talk about the reduced risk of infections, including ear and viral infections in newborns and infants. If discussing work schedules–let everyone know there are less missed workdays when babies are healthier. When talking about school–drop the research that shows that breastfed children can get an IQ boost from breastfeeding.

When you see a nursing mother, smile and make easy conversation–send the message that breastfeeding is normal and accepted. If you see a mom being harassed while breastfeeding, go to her and gently support her right to nurse. If moms are concerned about nursing in public let them know about clothing designed to discretely breastfeed or how to layer loose-fitting clothing that allows easy access to the breast. You might want to discuss how to use “cover ups”, but reassure them that they have every right to be breastfeed wherever and whenever their baby sends the “I’m hungry” message. Show your support by reminding them that they really do not need to hide or go to unacceptable places like bathrooms to nurture and nourish their baby!

We can take steps to normalize breastfeeding through educating the public and parents-to-be as well as supporting breastfeeding mothers and families, directly or indirectly. Making breastfeeding the norm will not happen quickly–but it can happen!