Feeding Forward: Celebrating Black Breastfeeding Week
Presented by: Kiki Milk
This Black Breastfeeding Week, Kiki Milk invites you to Feed Forward—a virtual gathering centered on the realities, resilience, and possibilities shaping Black breastfeeding and infant-feeding experiences today.
Breastfeeding is more than a feeding choice. For Black families, the journey can be shaped by everything from prenatal care and birth experiences to access to lactation support, cultural expectations, nutrition, workplace realities, family dynamics, and the systems surrounding maternal and infant health.
Feeding Forward brings together leaders across maternal health, pediatrics, obstetrics, lactation, nutrition, and family wellness for an interdisciplinary conversation about what it truly takes for Black families to feel informed, respected, and supported throughout their feeding journeys.
Together, we’ll follow the feeding journey across the continuum—from prenatal preparation and birth through postpartum, infant nutrition, weaning, and the transition to complementary feeding.
What We’ll Explore:
- The challenges Black families may encounter before, during, and after birth
- The structural and cultural factors that influence breastfeeding experiences and outcomes
- The role of providers, families, communities, and systems in creating meaningful support
- The realities of lactation, nutrition, infant feeding, and postpartum care
- The triumphs, resilience, knowledge, and traditions that Black families bring to their feeding journeys
- What informed choice looks like when families are given the support, information, and resources they need
- Why our understanding of successful feeding must extend beyond breastfeeding duration alone
We will be joined by:
- Latham Thomas – Founder & CEO, Mama Glow
- Lauren Abelin – Co-Founder, Kiki Milk
- Dr. Alana Arnold – Pediatrician, Founder & CEO, PEMPal
- Dr. Joy Cooper – OB/GYN, Co-Founder & CEO, Culture Care
- Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN
- Porsche Holland-Otunba, CLC, C-CBE, PMH-C
