USA Launch: The 2023 Lancet Series on Breastfeeding
Including the influence of commercial milk formula marketing
Join study authors and a panel of experts as they unpack a new 3-paper Lancet Series:
- Infant behaviours, feeding practices and multisectoral interventions to support breastfeeding
- The commercial milk formula marketing 'playbook'
- Power, political and economic structures and their impact on infant feeding, health and human rights
Breastfeeding is a collective responsibility and needs to be effectively protected, promoted and supported.
Media statement available here.
This event was held on 18 April 2023.
Download the presentation materials here.
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Moderator
Nina Martin
Nina Martin is an editor and reporter for Reveal/Center for Investigative Reporting, where she oversees coverage of sex and gender issues. Previously she was a reporter at ProPublica, where her "Lost Mothers" project with NPR, examining maternal mortality in the U.S., inspired sweeping changes to maternal health policy at the federal, state and provider levels. Nina has a B.A. in public policy from Princeton and an MSJ from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. She is based in Berkeley, CA.
Presenters
Rafael Pérez-Escamilla
Dr. Rafael Pérez-Escamilla is a tenured Professor at the Yale School of Public Health where he is also Director of the Office of Public Health Practice, the Global Health Concentration, and the Maternal Child Health Promotion Program. His research program has led to large scale global improvements in infant and young child feeding; early childhood development; and household food and nutrition security programs. He has published over 330 peer reviewed research articles and has given hundreds of invited lectures across world regions. He served in the steering committees and was a co-author of the 2016 Early Childhood Development and the 2023 Breastfeeding Lancet Series. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He has served as senior scientific advisor to the US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The National Institutes of Health (NIH), The National Academies of Engineering, Science and Medicine (NASEM), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UNICEF, The World Health Organization, The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, and Governments across world regions.
Katheryn Russ
Katheryn Russ is Professor and Chair of Economics at the University of California, Davis. She specializes in open-economy macroeconomics and international trade. She is a faculty research associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research International Trade and Investment Group and Co-Organizer of the International Trade and Macroeconomics Working Group. She served as Senior Economist for International Trade and Finance for the White House Council of Economic Advisors 2015-16.
Fatmata Fatima Sesay
Fatmata Fatima Sesay is a Nutrition Specialist, Infant Feeding with UNICEF HQ in New York. She manages the breastfeeding portfolio and contributes to UNICEF’s global leadership in Early Childhood Nutrition. She has over 15 years of experience in Maternal, Infant, and Young Child and Micronutrient Nutrition in both development and humanitarian settings. Fatmata holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a BSc, and an MSc in Nutrition and Dietetics from Njala University, Sierra Leone.
Cecília Tomori
Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. She is a Hungarian-American anthropologist and public health scholar whose work investigates the structural and sociocultural drivers that shape health, illness, and health inequities. Tomori is internationally recognized for her expertise on breastfeeding, infant sleep, and maternal child health. She is an author of three books on breastfeeding and reproduction, and numerous publications on a range of public health issues. Tomori has collaborated with colleagues at Johns Hopkins and beyond on breastfeeding, infant sleep, infectious disease prevention, drug use and health policy, and her work has influenced guidance on these topics.
Panelists
Stacy Davis
Inspired by her own lived experiences of being a Black woman and mother trying to navigate inequitable health care systems, Stacy Davis has dedicated her work to addressing inequities in maternal child health and lactation. In the past 10 years, Stacy has assisted in the creation of programs and services, including instituting Pathway 2 lactation programs in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which seek to positively impact the maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates and increase and strengthen diversity in birth and lactation supporters and providers.
Currently, Stacy serves as the Senior Manager of Health Equity and Community Partnerships for the National WIC Association. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Davenport University and graduate degree in Public Health from Western Michigan University. Stacy Davis sits on the Board of Directors for the United States Lactation Consultant Association and Human Milk Bank Association of North America.
Lori Feldman-Winter
Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, is Professor of Pediatrics at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and former Division Head, Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, at The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper University Healthcare in Camden, NJ. She completed medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine with distinction in molecular immunology, and internship/residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She went on to complete her MPH at Rutger’s University as a HRSA Fellow and received special distinction from the NJ Department of Health for her fieldwork entitled, “Integrating Breastfeeding Education to Eliminate Disparities.” She is the Co-Director of a 4-year integrated curriculum at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University entitled, the Scholars Workshop.
Dr. Feldman-Winter is the immediate past Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)-Section on Breastfeeding, and former chair of the Policy and Education Committees and executive committee for the AAP Section on Breastfeeding, former member of the AAP Task Force on SIDS, and former AAP representative to the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC). She is currently a Board member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), member of the protocols committee, ABM representative to the USBC, and Associate Editor for the journal Breastfeeding Medicine.
For today’s presentation she is not speaking on behalf of any of the organizations mentioned, but rather drawing on her own personal experiences and reflections in the field of breastfeeding medicine.
Camie Goldhammer
Camie Goldhammer, MSW, LICSW, IBCLC (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyaté) is a devoted leader for Indigenous families locally and nationally. She brings joy into all the work that she does and creates community and care in all her relationships. From starting grassroots community milk donation drives for families in her neighborhood, to holding lactation support circles in her living room, and bringing strangers random acts of kindness for her birthday, Camie is generous, warm-hearted, and a treasure to those who know her.
While Camie does not consider herself traditional, she is the first in several generations to reclaim the traditional practice of breastfeeding. She is held by the love of her ancestors and the support of her community in pursuing a vision of increasing breast/chestfeeding and decreasing maternal and infant mortality in Native and Pacific Islander communities nationally. She, along with her "breastfriend" Kimberly Moore-Salas (Diné) created the first and only lactation counselor training created by Native people for Native communities and addresses the role that Historical Trauma (HT) and colonization have played in interrupting this traditional practice. Camie and Kim have trained over 550 Indigenous Lactation Counselors or Indigi-LCs across Turtle Island. In November 2018 Camie along with Kimberly were the first Native Americans to be elected to the United States Breastfeeding Committee Board of Directors. Both were reelected for a second term in the fall of 2020.
Camie has spent nearly 20 years serving urban Native families. She started the Native American Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington, the National Association of Professional and Peer Lactation Consultants of Color and was a member of the Center for Social Inclusion's First Food Racial Equity cohort. In 2013 she became Washington state's first Native American Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She worked as a Campaign Director with MomsRising working to bring paid family and medical leave to Washington State which was signed into law in July 2017. Starting in 2014, Camie worked with CHAMPS/CHEER to make all hospitals in Mississippi and the Indian Health Service Baby Friendly. In April 2021 she left her role as Program Manager for United Indians of All Tribes’ Daybreak Star Doulas (which she also developed) and Our Strong Fathers to start Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services as its Founding Executive Director. She is a national leader on topics of racial equity, birth and breastfeeding reclamation and first food justice.
When she isn’t working tirelessly for her communities, you can find Camie spending time with her family, listening to podcasts on cults, or at Disneyland. She lives in South Seattle with her husband Eric, two daughters Dylan (14) and JoJo (11), and dog Memphis. She has an amazing earring and breastfeeding t-shirt collection. Every year for breastfeeding awareness month, she wears a different t-shirt every day and posts a new fact about milk and breast/chest feeding. Taught by her Unči (Grandma), Camie has a love of sewing, especially quilting. She makes Halloween costumes for her daughters every year from scratch, and traditional star quilts for community members. She carries on the legacy of her grandmother through these practices.
Sekeita Lewis-Johnson
Dr. Sekeita Lewis-Johnson is a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and Birth Doula. With over 25 years in the nursing profession, her primary focus has been labor & delivery and nursing education. She has been an IBCLC for 15 years. She is the Accredited Provider Program Director and an Instructor for Lactation Education Resources. Her highest degree earned is Doctor of Nursing Practice with a Certificate in Nursing Education.
She is one of the Founding Members of Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color and Mama’s Mobile Milk. She is the owner of Mommy and Me Lactation Consulting, LLC, and serves as a Board Director for The United States Breastfeeding Committee.
Dr. Lewis-Johnson has received multiple awards during her career. In 2021 she was the recipient of two awards: The Award of Excellence from the United States Lactation Consultant Association and The Alumni Service Award from The College of Nursing at Michigan State University.
Dr. Lewis-Johnson is an avid advocate for equitable and just policies and practice, especially related to black maternal-child health inequities. Passionate about maternal-child health and breastfeeding, she provides lactation and doula services within Metro-Detroit and surrounding areas. Her main goals are to prevent obstetrical harm, and to assist families achieve their desired feeding goals. She believes that breastfeeding self-efficacy, along with skilled and timely lactation care are key to breastfeeding success. Dr. Lewis-Johnson is the proud mother of 3 breast fed children.
Ruth Petersen
Dr. Ruth Petersen serves as the Director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO). The Division provides national leadership on nutrition, physical activity and obesity prevention through policy and guideline development, surveillance, epidemiological and behavioral research, and technical assistance to states and communities. Dr. Petersen has a breadth of experience and leadership from multiple settings including health care, local and state health departments, national advisory groups, academic settings, the private sector, and global health platforms. Her broad, deep and diverse experience with populations, partners and stakeholders are strong assets for leading DNPAO in its focused efforts that prevent chronic diseases and strengthen equity and well-being.
Dr. Petersen received her MD and MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After training in obstetrics and gynecology in Rochester, New York, she completed the UNC Preventive Medicine Residency and a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research. Throughout her career, she has drawn on her expertise in patient care, health system change, disease prevention and community engagement to develop and guide programs, research, and policy to improve health behaviors, reduce health disparities and reduce chronic disease.
Tina Sherman
Tina Sherman is Senior Campaign Director for Maternal Justice at MomsRising. Tina has dedicated her professional life to supporting and empowering moms and families. Tina has served as a legislative aide in the United States Senate, has worked with several child and women's advocacy organizations, and is a certified birth doula. With formal training in public policy and a heart in serving and supporting women and families, Tina is committed to ensuring that public policies reflect the needs of real people and meet women where they are.
Tina and her husband JP are raising four boys ranging from 8 to 17 years, including 14 year old twins. She serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Breastfeeding Committee and is active in her small town serving on the Town Planning Board and Affordable Housing Committee.