Lactation Matters

Breastfeeding and chestfeeding parents who are part of the workforce face unique challenges. If you are one of them, you have made an excellent choice for yourself and your baby! Below, experienced International Board Certified Lactation Consultant® (IBCLCs®) provide their best advice for combining lactation and employment.  For many of us, how and where we […]

Please join ILCA in celebrating Black Breastfeeding Week! Traditionally held in the last week of August, Black Breastfeeding Week was initially created to address racial disparities in breastfeeding. This year’s theme – Revive, Restore, Reclaim – is being celebrated virtually this year due to COVID-19.  A lack of access to culturally matched skilled lactation providers […]

Interview with Catherine Sullivan Providers worldwide are working to understand and implement changes to the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) while managing the many challenges presented by the COVID-19. At the #ILCA2020 Virtual Conference, Catherine Sullivan, Director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (GGBI) and an assistant professor in the Department of Maternal Child Health […]

How can YOU support action steps to support breastfeeding for a healthier planet? As a part of World Breastfeeding Week, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified six action areas for creating change. We are sharing the last action area – societal support – today.  Just learning about this year’s World Breastfeeding Week celebrations? […]

Breastfeeding mothers and chestfeeding parents encounter a wide variety of providers from pregnancy through weaning. The importance of ensuring that those providers – from peer educators to IBCLCs to nurses and physicians – have adequate training was a key point raised in yesterday’s webinar. (To learn more about the Global Breastfeeding Collective’s webinar Achieving Health […]

Following today’s Global Breastfeeding Collective webinar on Achieving Health Equity: Providing Skilled Breastfeeding Support Universally, we are focusing today’s World Breastfeeding Week action on the importance of access to skilled lactation care. As a part of World Breastfeeding Week, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified six action areas for creating change. We will […]

How can YOU support action steps to support breastfeeding for a healthier planet? As a part of World Breastfeeding Week, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified six action areas for creating change. We will share one with you for the next six days.  Just learning about this year’s World Breastfeeding Week celebrations? Get […]

As part of your World Breastfeeding Week celebrations, please join us for Achieving health equity: Providing skilled breastfeeding support universally. In this webinar sponsored by the Global Breastfeeding Collective, WHO and UNICEF, key global leaders will discuss why investment in skilled breastfeeding support is essential to achieving equitable health outcomes. The audience will hear from […]

How can YOU support action steps to support breastfeeding for a healthier planet? As a part of World Breastfeeding Week, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified six action areas for creating change. We will share one with you for the next six days.  Just learning about this year’s World Breastfeeding Week celebrations? Get […]

How can YOU support action steps to support breastfeeding for a healthier planet? As a part of World Breastfeeding Week, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has identified six action areas for creating change. We will share one with you for the next six days.  Just learning about this year’s World Breastfeeding Week celebrations? Get […]

Happy World Breastfeeding Week! #WBW2020 Happy World Breastfeeding Week! International Lactation Consultant Association® (ILCA®) is excited to join World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and other organizations and individuals the world over in celebrating #WBW2020. The theme of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) 2020 is Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet! Lactation Matters will feature blog […]

Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet. Although this theme was created before the first news reports of COVID, equitable access to human milk is now more important than ever.  1 August marks the first day of World Breastfeeding Week, sponsored by ILCA partner World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). Celebrated for seven days through 7 […]

You’ve just seen a new breastfeeding family for their first visit. You analyzed the situation and gave research-driven advice. You left them with a care plan you feel good about and a schedule for following up. You covered all your bases.  Or did you?  Did you happen to ask what the infant feeding history is […]

As both #ILCA2020 and the ILCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) goes all-virtual this year for everyone’s safety, we are thinking creatively about how to honor and celebrate our members and attendees in new ways! As an international organization, we have traditionally opened our conference with a Parade of Flags, where attendees from all over the […]

This year is a time of crisis and change worldwide: both the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing human rights uprisings across the globe have highlighted the gaps and failings in our current systems. Babies and families have always needed us. Now more than ever, we are called on to learn and grow so we may best […]

Yesterday, George Floyd was laid to rest in Texas, United States, next to his mother.  I, like so many around the world, mourn his passing, and send my deepest condolences to his family, including his six-year-old daughter Gianna. His death is holding so much that it can feel hard to bear. From the pain of […]

Photo credit: Facebook image of Autumnn Gaines, photo taken by her wife Jania Gaines George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died face down and handcuffed, after being pinned down by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Among his last words were a call to his mother. As mothers, and as those that support […]

A recent controversy regarding an article about the handling of human milk containers during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised important concerns from readers of the Journal of Human Lactation. We hope that the following helps answer some of your questions and guide your next steps as a skilled lactation provider. What is the article about? […]

Every day, new information is released about the COVID-19 virus. New statistics refute earlier assumptions, new data challenges current protocols, and just-released guidelines are revised and replaced. As a professional helping lactating families, how do you wade through the flood of information? And how do you translate it to action steps for your practice? In […]

The International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA) and the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA) stand firmly in support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and their critical work helping “mothers and children survive and thrive,” particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The care plans and policies that are established during COVID-19 for the care of new […]