To-wen Tseng Blogs
It Is Not Kindness For Employers To Support Breastfeeding Parents At Work; It’s The Law.
May is my favorite month. It’s warm, but not too warm. The Lilacs and lilies of the valley bloom. Both Mother’s Day and Chinese Breastfeeding Awareness Day (which is May 20th) are in this month. It’s also AAPI Heritage month. This May, I was lucky enough to tell my breastfeeding story with a video produced by StoryCenter in collaboration…
Read MoreLactation is Maternal Health. Let’s Support Black Lactating Mothers this Black Maternal Health Week.
April 11th marked the first day of Black Maternal Health Week this year. I think it is a great time to talk about how lactation is a crucial part of maternal health. Breastfeeding can reduce a mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and all these conditions affect black women at…
Read MoreWhat is Exploitative Marketing of Formula Milk?
One month before giving birth, I received a “gift box” from the formula milk company Enfamil. Inside the box were formula and nipple samples, and a card with my name and parenting support information (which actually leads to an industry-sponsored helpline) on it. I was shocked that the formula company knew that I was going…
Read MoreNo, Green Breast Milk is NOT an Indication that You Have COVID-19
There has been a viral picture going around the Internet of a mother saying that her breast milk turned green when she and her baby tested positive for COVID. So is green breast milk really an indication of COVID? First, a mother’s breast milk has nutrients that are specifically made for her infant. That is especially true…
Read MoreDads, Not Just Moms, Need To Start Shouting For Paid Family Leave
In a 2019 piece for Family Values at Work, my husband shared his thoughts about the need for paid family leave for men. Since then, we’ve seen some changes—the Biden administration’s social spending bill, which includes a provision for four weeks of paid family and medical leave—not exactly robust but better than nothing—passed the house narrowly last November.…
Read MoreA Look Back at SDCBC’s Activism in 2021
What a year! In the face of a pandemic, San Diego County Breastfeeding Coalition continues to protect, promote and support breastfeeding through education, outreach, advocacy, and service in our community. Here is a look back at what the coalition has done in 2021. Continue to put together our signature Breastfeeding Resource Guide for families in both English and…
Read MoreCelebrating Breastfeeding Rights Pioneer, Dr. Nancy Wight MD, IBCLC, FABM, FAAP
I am dedicating this month’s SDCBC blog post to Dr. Nancy Wight, the founding and constant member of the Coalition for the past 27 years. Eight years ago around this time, I sent my first email to SDCBC, asking to become a volunteer with the coalition. I introduced myself as a journalist with 10 years…
Read MoreMoms Need Even More Support to Breastfeed In the Era of COVID-19
Last month, TIME magazine published an article that portrayed breastfeeding in an unflattering way. Featuring a new mother struggling to produce breast milk, the article described breastfeeding as an activity that sacrifices a mother’s well-being and blamed COVID-19 for making new moms who seek immune protection to their babies feel even more pressure to breastfeed. As a…
Read MoreLactation Practice Within Immigrant Communities
I once knew a woman who breastfeed on a refugee boat for 48 hours and saved her two young children’s lives—yes, saved their lives, not kept them alive. It was during the 1949’s Chinese Civil War, and that was a small boat packed with displaced people. Her fellow refugees were afraid that the kids’ crying…
Read MoreNational Breastfeeding Month 2021: Every Step of the Way
“If I could talk to myself eight years agoSeeing what I’ve seen, knowing what I knowI would tell that new motherThere’ll be days aheadWhen breastfeeding doesn’t seem to workI would tell her she can trust herselfCause now I gotta picture of landscape of infant feedingI can see with perfect clarityIt wasn’t impossibleIt was what we…
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