Field of lactation gains child psychologist

The field of lactation just gained another amazing care provider. Kenya Malcolm, PhD, CLC is a child psychologist, consultant, and trainer in Rochester, New York. Dr. Malcolm’s work focuses on programs and interventions in early childhood in mental health settings, preschools and pediatric offices. Among her many responsibilities, Dr. Malcolm is the HealthySteps program coordinator at a large pediatric practice.

Dr. Malcolm says, “The research is pretty clear that working with caregivers early to support children is the best way to promote optimal family and child health. So, that’s what I do!”

In fun, Dr. Malcolm is not only passionate about mental health, but she’s a self-described stationery nerd.

“I think that color coding is a great way to take notes and stay organized but I’ve been mocked for my pen collection!” she begins. When her LCTC instructor Dr. Anna Blair recommended using multiple ink colors on the Lactation Assessment & Comprehensive Intervention Tool (LAT), Dr. Malcolm says she felt validated.

She was again validated during the first few sessions of the course while learning about the benefits of breast/chest feeding not only for the baby but for lactating people.

“That’s when I knew I’d made the right decision to sign up for the course,” she reflects.

Because Dr. Malcolm is new to lactation counseling, she says that “every successful chest feeding story is my favorite right now.”

Photo by Luiza Braun

“All the moms have been so happy that they’re successful!” she explains. “I was not supported in breastfeeding my own kids when they were born and honestly, being a CLC is like an opportunity to be the superhero I wish I had 20 years ago.”

In becoming that superhero, Dr. Malcolm subscribes to reflective practice as a guiding principle in her work, and more specifically, in her leadership roles.

Dr. Malcolm remembers the words of one of the founding members of ZERO to THREE Jeree H. Pawl: “How you are is as important as what you do.”

Here’s more of what Dr. Malcolm had to say:

“Reflective supervision is a special kind of supervision that focuses on the practitioner’s own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to support their ability to provide good care to the folks they are working with. Working with caregivers and children is tough work and usually includes navigating systems that are very siloed with rigid expectations. As humans, we often respond in ways that are just as much about ourselves as about the family in front of us. Reflective supervision is a necessary space for slowing down and looking at our actions to improve care, reduce bias and disparities, and improve the well-being of everyone involved. Reflective capacity is a skill and reflective supervision is considered a necessary component of support for people who are working with young children and families by most major organizations working toward the health of families.”

In Dr. Malcolm’s side gig with The Society for The Protection and Care of Children, participants introduce themselves with their baby pictures “as a way to hold in mine our own younger selves who continue to show up in our work.” The work focuses on training staff in Infant Mental Health (IMH) principles, Reflective Supervision, and infant/early childhood mental health conceptualization and diagnosis using the DC0-3 across New York state.

“One IMH principle is that we always hold the baby in mind,” Dr. Malcolm begins. “But it’s not just the baby in front of us. We also have to be aware of the baby whose needs are still present in our own selves. That’s why reflective spaces are so important. Our own biases and histories are present in all of our current interactions–another IMH tenant is that our early experiences matter– and we want to be mindful of how those are showing up in our work in both helpful and not so helpful ways.”

Dr. Malcolm tackles another big idea. Responding to an article on moral injury she wrote on social media, “I… think there’s a savior fantasy that many health professionals have that is sometimes traumatic to lose while in the field.” This phenomenon often rings true for lactation care providers. Dr. Malcolm advises doing the self- work it takes for true humility and reflection.

She shares this anecdote:

Source: United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC)

“I was observing a lactation counseling visit last week and a mom came in with questions about a possible tongue tie and some nipple pain with feeding. Since the latch was poor, the LC provided some strategies for improving latch that helped to address some of the pain. Like, mom agreed that there was less pain with position changes. But mom was not actually interested in working on latch; she was focused on the possibility of the tongue tie. The LC did a great job of talking through her observations and assessment and providing next-step ideas to Mom. But the LC and I really wanted mom to want to improve her latch. It would be easy to feel like that was an unsuccessful visit because we didn’t save the day in the way we wanted. But mom left feeling heard and supported. Many of us go into human services work to be a hero (I actually used the words “being a superhero” two answers ago!! I’m tempted to change that answer now, but I’m not going to.) of our own design. Families don’t need that. They need support to be at their own best.”

You can connect with Dr. Malcolm here.

Centering and celebrating cultures in health: Dietary Guidelines for infants and toddlers for Chinese and Vietnamese communities

During the first week of April each year, the American Public Health Association (APHA) brings together communities to observe National Public Health Week. This year’s theme  is Centering and Celebrating Cultures in Health and highlights the importance of fostering cultural connections to health and quality of life. 

Last month, we celebrated National Nutrition Month, an annual campaign by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which highlights the importance of making informed food choices across the lifespan.

Photo by Angela Roma

A beautiful example of the convergence of these two themes is work being done by the Asian Pacific Islander Breastfeeding Task Force (APIBTF) a part of  Breastfeed LA, tailoring the Dietary Guidelines for infants and toddlers for Chinese and Vietnamese communities. This project augments APIBTF’s sister organization Alameda County’s Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander (ASAP!) Breastfeeding Taskforce’s Continuity of Care (CoC) Blueprint Project Prenatal Toolkit for AANHPI families. The prenatal toolkit was adapted from an existing toolkit in Alameda County, and is available in English, traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese.

The initiative is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (CDC/DNPAO). NACCHO selected seven communities to strengthen community lactation support through the implementation of the Continuity of Care in Breastfeeding Support: A Blueprint for Communities from November 2022 to July 2023. The purpose of this project is to support the implementation of CoC strategies by local-level organizations among oppressed communities with historically low rates of chest/breastfeeding. [https://www.naccho.org/programs/community-health/maternal-child-adolescent-health/breastfeeding-support#early-childhood-nutrition]

Photo by Roderick Salatan

 

The dietary resources which include an Educational Handout from Dietary Guidelines, Nutrition Resource Directory, and social media posts can be found here, available in English, Chinese and Vietnamese. The materials include a dietary guidelines hand out with two toddler-friendly recipes (with a fun suggestion to use green onion to decorate steamed eggs), three social media messages with a timeline for infant feeding, human milk recommendations, and complementary food recommendations, all commonly eaten in Asian communities. The deliverables are full of color and easy to navigate. 

Judy Li and Cindy Young presented their work during NACCHO’s The First 1,000 Days Nutrition: Improving Nutrition Security for Infants and Toddlers in Communities of Color where the Improving Infant and Young Child Nutrition during the first 1,000 days in Communities of Color summary report was introduced. 

Li, Young and their team’s work was community-informed, standing by the sentiment, “Nothing about us, without us.” The team spoke with community members about eating habits and learned that families do not eat according to the MyPlate graphic. Instead, they enjoy their meals in family-style servings from bowls. Recipes developed were tested by community members with children and tailored according to their suggestions; for example, the addition of different dipping sauces.

Participants also offered feedback stating that they appreciated the accessibility of the ingredients. 

 

Helpful links

ASAP!’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Social Media Toolkit 

National Public Health Week’s shareables and toolkit (available in Spanish)  

USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020-2025)

The Association of State Public Health Nutritionists (ASPHN) brief on Transition Feeding 

Public Health Nutrition Deserves More Attention

Undernourished and Overlooked

Breastfeeding is not binary.

–This post is part of our 10-year anniversary series “Breastfeeding is…” When we initially curated this series, we planned for 10 weeks, but breastfeeding is so many things that we just couldn’t fit it all in.  Thus, two bonus weeks in our anniversary series! — 

Breastfeeding is not binary.

There’s solid evidence that direct breastfeeding offers the most protective and beneficial effects to mothers, babies and ultimately society.

Photo by Luiza Braun on Unsplash

When breastfeeding, a baby’s saliva transfers chemicals to their mother’s body that causes her milk to adjust to meet the changing needs of the baby. [Al-Shehri, et al 2015]

Even more fascinating, the combination of baby saliva and fresh breastmilk generates enough hydrogen peroxide to inhibit growth of Staphylococcus and Salmonella. Read about the science behind it all here.

Breastfeeding encourages proper mouth and jaw development and promotes oral health. 

When babies breastfeed, they are less likely to become obese for reasons like self-regulation of milk intake and seeding of their gut microbiomes. [Pérez-Escamilla, 2016] 

Infants at the breast, compared to bottle-fed infants, have better heart and respiratory rates and higher oxygen saturation rates because breastfeeding consumes less energy.

Photo by Zach Vessels on Unsplash

Breastfeeding has implications on mother-infant bonding and children’s future behavior. One study found that “compared to children whose mothers breastfed them, children who were not breastfed showed an increased number of internalizing behavioral problems, particularly anxious/depressed and somatic symptoms… A duration effect (dosage effect) appeared such that breastfeeding for 10 months or longer had the strongest impact on reducing anxious/depressed and somatic symptoms in children.”

Direct breastfeeding does not require feeding paraphernalia that may be vectors for disease. 

Even if the contents of a bottle contain human milk, the effects achieved through direct breastfeeding may not be possible.  

However, the reality of families’ lives, and sometimes choice, mean that most babies in the U.S. will not exclusively breastfeed or go on to breastfeed in conjunction with appropriate complementary feeding as recommended.

Photo by Lucas Margoni on Unsplash

The most recent CDC Breastfeeding Report Card acknowledges, “Numerous barriers to breastfeeding remain, and disparities persist in breastfeeding duration and exclusivity rates by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Policy, systems, and environmental changes that address breastfeeding barriers, such as better maternity care practices, paid leave policies, and supportive ECE centers, can help to improve breastfeeding rates and reduce disparities.” 

For these reasons and others, infant feeding often takes many forms. Infant feeding in America is not either/or, it’s both/and

Fiona Jardine and Aiden Farrow present experiences that do not fit into how we often generalize the infant feeding experience. 

Universal pumping icon by Fiona Jardine

Jardine’s work follows those who exclusively pump human milk. Farrow too pumped milk for their child born with cleft complications and then went on to directly chestfeed their baby.

Farrow has explained: “Feeding methods are not mutually exclusive. There are always windows and doors.” 

Lactation care providers, other care providers, health policies and procedures must all acknowledge the incredibly diverse experiences of families while honoring the very ubiquitous human desire that we all want what’s best for our babies.   

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Our 10-year anniversary giveaway has ended. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Exploring language among gender nonconforming individuals and nontraditional partners

 June is notoriously known as Pride Month, but October features other observances that bring awareness to a variety of health issues and topics that impact LGBTQIA youth. October 11 was National Coming Out Day, October 20 was International Pronouns Day and last week, individuals and organizations recognized Intersex Awareness Day

In Breastfeeding Priorities: Safe Sleep, Bias, Gender Equitable Norms, and Paid Leave— Q&A with Internationally and Nationally Recognized Breastfeeding Expert, Lori Feldman Winter, MD, MPH, NICHQ poses the questions: How can we acknowledge the need to be inclusive of all types of parents and caregivers?  How do we promote gender-equitable social norms to better support breastfeeding?”

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

Feldman Winter offers, “… We need to ask, ‘how do we better support breastfeeding among gender nonconforming individuals and nontraditional partners?’ so we don’t alienate anyone when it comes to breastfeeding. It starts with being more inclusive and acknowledging that the benefits of breastfeeding aren’t all tied to the concept of the ‘breast’ itself. Breastfeeding is a complex compilation of systems including biological benefits from skin-to-skin touching and nurturing; nutrients from human milk that can be breast- or bottle-fed; and benefits that come directly from the flora on a lactating/nursing breast.

There are multiple ways to look at breastfeeding and understand its benefits, Feldman Winter continues. 

For instance “a chest that may not be able to produce milk can still nurture babies through the benefits of skin-to-skin contact,” she’s quoted in the NICHQ piece. “People who don’t produce breastmilk can still provide human milk through donor milk and bottle feeding. Transgender men and gender nonconforming parents and caregivers may still breastfeed safely if they choose to, and may prefer the term chestfeeding over breastfeeding because it respects their identity. All kinds of arrangements can be made to truly provide an equitable support system. As clinicians and scientists, we need to keep an open mind as we look at breastfeeding and explore how to optimize the health and well-being of all babies and families.” 

The authors of Effective Communication About Pregnancy, Birth, Lactation, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care: The Importance of Sexed Language present their thoughts about the risks of using desexed language in perinatal care.

Photo credit: PNW Production

The authors acknowledge that “Desexing the language of female reproduction has been done with a view to being sensitive to individual needs and as beneficial, kind, and inclusive.” 

They go on, “Yet, this kindness has delivered unintended consequences that have serious implications for women and children. These include: decreasing overall inclusivity; dehumanizing; including people who should be excluded; being imprecise, inaccurate or misleading; and disembodying and undermining breastfeeding. In addition, avoidance of the term ‘mother’ in its sexed sense, risks reducing recognition and the right to protection of the mother-infant dyad.”  

As part of this discussion, NICHQ has released statements in regard to the use of its language.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

Heidi Brooks, Chief Operating Officer at NICHQ writes,  “NICHQ is not abandoning the traditional use of the terms ‘mother’ and ‘maternal.’ We are embracing the inclusive language of ‘birthing person/people’ across our work. A move toward inclusive language does not force us to stop using language that so many people identify with; at its core, inclusion is about creating more space for one another. We are taking care to expand the use of these terms in our communications, on our website, in our resources, and eventually, in all our projects. This evolution is another aspect of NICHQ’s commitment to equity in all forms, including race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ability.” 

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) put out its Clinical Protocol #33: Lactation Care for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Plus Patients in May 2020 to help guide lactation care providers through items like language, creating a respectful health care environment, through the effects of transition-related health care on pregnancy and breast/chestfeeding, fertility options, induced lactation and colactation and milk sharing, as well as put out a call out for future research to better inform practice.

Photo courtesy of Glenis Decuir

Check out past Our Milky Way coverage on LGBTQIA health

Uplifting transgender and non binary parents 

On becoming transliterate 

Working to close the gaps in LGBTQ care 

Blurring the binary 

Skin to skin image goes viral 

Wives co-breastfeed son for two-and-a-half years

Explore youth.gov’s page for other past and upcoming events celebrating Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Expression, and Well-Being.

Firstfeeding coalition focuses on enriching Indigenous lives

Heidi Abed, Executive Director Ayllu Community Network, gave birth 20 years apart. With this spacing, Abed saw firsthand how mothers are treated according to their age and perceived experiences.

Photo Courtesy of IFCC

As a 17-year-old, medical professionals doubted her when she told them she was in labor. When she was sent away from the hospital, Abed almost gave birth at home alone.

“I had to call an ambulance,” she recollects.

At 37, Abed desired a water birth, but her insurance denied coverage for this natural option.

“Even 20 years later, I have not seen enough improvement in maternal support provided for any natural options during birth, postpartum and especially with lactation,” Abed shares.

What’s more, she says it was like pulling teeth to try to gain access to a lactation care provider in the hospital.

“They told me that they had lactation consultants, but a couple of days later, they never got the chance [to come see me.]”

Once she and her baby were discharged, it was hard to find lactation care too. When she did connect with one, the lactation specialist used language Abed didn’t understand, and she says she had to look it up on Google to try to make sense of it.

Established in 2018, Abed joined the Indigenous Firstfeeding Coalition Colorado (IFCC)– a coalition created to combat extremely low lactation rates in Indigenous communities due to generational and historical trauma— a few years after its launch. [More on addressing historical trauma here.]

“I am doing what I can to fill a gaping void for far too many,” Abed shares.

Abed’s comrade at IFCC, LJ, has been invested in supporting and educating parents about lactation since having a child in 2013. Being Native, enriching Native lives stays a priority for LJ.

Abed and LJ  have grown in their knowledge and ability to help support others by completing the Indigenous Lactation Counselor Training and Cornerstone Full Spectrum Doula Training.

The team has also embraced inclusivity leading to their name change from Indigenous Breastfeeding Coalition Colorado to its current name, along with their handle across social media: NativeNipples.

The coalition networks with many other community organizations promoting and engaging with their events. This summer has been full of opportunities to connect and more to come like the Breastival, the Indigenous Mind Body Gathering, the Healing Hoop veteran honoring event, Elephant Circle video contest, and the second part of Tewa Women United’s Lactation After Loss.

“Interconnectedness and networking is really everything since we are volunteers with no funding,” Abed begins. “Our aforementioned training was made available through other partnerships at no cost to us. Also, our communities are relatively small and spread out, so pooling together knowledge and resources across social media helps bridge geographic gaps. Bringing light to each other’s efforts makes us more effective, supported, and [helps] avoid redundancy.”

IFCC at the 9 Health Fair in 2019.

Abed also points out the links between Black maternal health and Indigenous maternal health and how they are working together with allied organizations to dismantle many shared experiences that impact maternal infant health.

With the 3rd Annual Indigenous Milk Medicine Week this week, honoring the theme “Strengthening Our Traditions From Birth and Beyond”, IFCC will host an Instagram Live event. Follow them on social media and stay tuned for more information throughout the week.

Knowing that Indigenous cultures are diverse and complex, the learning and honoring never ends! Check out the following to learn more and support these important efforts.