Blog: The (Breast)milk of Human Kindness
This blog, authored during my role communicating about global child health with PATH, provided an opportunity to align the experience of my own mother-in-law with that of mothers half a world away in Kenya and South Africa. This combination brought a personal angle to a universal topic that is at once science-based and also deeply emotional.
Human milk is the single most powerful intervention to save babies' lives, providing the unique nutrition and immune support they need to survive and thrive. Compared with formula, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, breast milk reduces the risk of sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis in neonates, reduces the time hospitalized infants remain in care, and reduces feeding intolerance, diarrhea, gastric issues, and other dangers. But while breastfeeding may seem like a simple, straightforward—not to mention rigorously scientifically proven—intervention, neonatologists worldwide report that between 15 to 40% of infants in NICUs do not have access to their mothers' milk.
