August 2022 NNLM Reading Club: Infant Feeding

Posted by Darlene Kaskie on July 31st, 2022 Posted in: Consumer Health, General, NLM Resources, NNLM Reading Club

All babies need to eat to survive. Breastfeeding (or chest-feeding), also called nursing, is the process of feeding a mother’s breast milk to her infant, either directly from the breast or by expressing (pumping out) the milk from the breast and bottle-feeding it to the infant. For baby, health experts agree that breast milk is considered best because it has all the necessary vitamins and minerals that the infant needs. However, for a parent not able to breastfeed or who decides not to, or for parents of an infant with special medical needs, infant formula is an alternative.

In support of the National Health Observance’s Breastfeeding Awareness Month, the NNLM Reading Club explores infant feeding from several different perspectives. For information on each of our three featured books, free downloadable book club discussion guides, customizable promotional materials and more, visit NNLM Reading Club Infant Feeding.

• “Sweet Nectar: Everything You Want To Know About Chestfeeding” by author Kylia P. Kennedy takes its readers through what chestfeeding looks like for over a dozen different parents from all walks of life, races, sexualities, and gender identities. Though these stories are all unique there is one thing they have in common: Every single parent needed support they didn’t get. This profound read aims to bring chest- feeding parents of the past, present, and future together in an effort for them to feel heard, educated, and understood.

• Painful latch, delayed milk, low supply, oversupply, infections, and tongue-tie are just some of the issues that can imperil breastfeeding. Postpartum anxiety and depression can make things even harder. Author Kathy Kendall-Tackett is a board-certified lactation consultant and researcher in breastfeeding, depression, trauma, and women’s health psychology. “Breastfeeding Doesn’t Need to Suck,” is an evidence-based guide full of practical advice to enhance both physical and psychological well-being so that parent and baby can thrive.

• Baby formula is a seventy-billion-dollar industry and Black mothers have the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country. Since slavery, legal, political, and societal factors have routinely denied Black women the ability to choose how to feed their babies. In “Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice,” Andrea Freeman tells the riveting story of the Fultz quadruplets while uncovering how feeding America’s youngest citizens is awash in social, legal, and cultural inequalities. This book highlights the making of a modern public health crisis, the four extraordinary girls whose stories encapsulate a nationwide injustice, and how we can fight for a healthier future.

ABOUT Darlene Kaskie
Darlene Kaskie, M.L.S. is Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist for Region 6 of the Network of the National Library of Medicine. She connects communities to training, engagement, and funding to improve access to health information and NLM Resources such as MedlinePlus. Advancing health literacy and digital skills training helps people make informed decisions about their health. She earned her Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS) from the Medical Library Association.

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