To-wen Tseng Blogs
Ten Years with SDCBC
Thanksgiving is upon us. This year, I’m grateful for family, friends, my fellow breastfeeding activists, and most of all, San Diego County Breastfeeding Coalition. I started to blog for SDCBC in November, 2013, when my first child was six months old and when I lost my last job over a breastfeeding discrimination claim. With that being…
Read MoreThe Importance of Supporting Lactating Students
Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition designated Wichita State University as a “Breastfeeding Welcome Here” campus back in September. The news caught my attention not because WSU provides private lactation rooms through the campus—lactation facilities on university campuses are not rare. Take our local university, UCSD, for example. UCSD provides fourteen lactation rooms throughout its campus, many of…
Read MoreA Wonderful Opportunity
As parents, we all want to provide the best for our children. And there is rarely a better opportunity for us to nourish our kids than breastfeeding—especially for new parents, breastfeeding is a wonderful opportunity to nourish our babies, both physically and emotionally. Of course, breastfeeding also presents challenges. And that’s what I want to…
Read MoreThis is My Why: A Reflection on #NBM2023
I was a breastfeeding mom for six years. During the six years, I have been separated from my baby for three months for work reasons, I have flown to four different cities with my pump within six months, I have been sent to the emergency room with mastitis and high fever, my milk supply has…
Read MoreIt Is NOT Kindness for Employers to Support Breastfeeding Employees. It Is The Law.
Last month, I attended a PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) celebration event with the White House Gender Policy Council. The victories are very personal to me, and it was my great pleasure to share my story at the event. I have been advocating for the PUMP since 2013, when I was denied the…
Read MoreBreastfeeding Is A Learning Process
As embarrassed as I am, I decided to share the experience here because it’s important for new parents to understand that while breastfeeding is natural, it is a learned skill for both mother and baby.
Read MoreGot a breastfeeding problem? Well, the problem is not breastfeeding
We need to talk about how to solve the difficulties that hinder mother’s chance of successfully breastfeeding, not what to use instead of breast milk.
Read MoreHow I Keep My Breast Pump Clean
Between my two children, I breastfed for six years. During the six years, my breast pump accompanied me to a dozen cities, from Columbus to Austin to Berkeley, because as a working reporter, I travel frequently for assignments. For six years, my breast pump and the baby photos I pinned on the pump bag got me through many long nights…
Read MoreWe Knew What Is Relactation. Now We Know How.
In the past year, formula shortage has caused moms across the US to relactate to feed their babies. Relactation is when moms start breastfeeding again after a gap. That gap might be as little as a few days, or as long as several weeks or even months. There are different reasons why moms want to relactate, including changing their…
Read MoreThe PUMP Act is Now Signed Into Law. What Changes Is It Gonna Make?
Unless you live in a cave, I’m sure you’ve heard that the Senate passed the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) act, a milestone protection for new mothers in the last few days of 2022. You’ve also probably heard that it’s a major milestone for women’s workplace civil rights. But what does it really…
Read More