Human Milk is a Human Right

Why is access to human milk a human rights issue?

Human milk is a racial justice issue

Lactation was used as a tool for oppression (genocide) during the era of enslavement where Black enslaved parents were forced to breastfeed the offspring of oppressors, denying Black babies access to human milk. Now, current systems of oppression continue to create barriers for Black parents to initiate and sustain lactation, from disproportionate access to paid family leave to outright racism in lactation care (one study found Black parents were 9x more likely to be offered formula in the hospital than their white counterparts).

Human milk is a family equity issue

Not all family structures include a parent who can or wants to lactate. But what if we lived in a society where human milk was readily accessible through nonprofit milk banking and peer-to-peer community milk sharing? Equity for trans and queer families, adoptive families, surrogate families, and all family structures demands creative solutions to human milk access so those parents who desire to feed their baby human milk have easy, free, and equitable access to human milk.

Human milk is a climate action issue

It is estimated that increasing breast/chestfeeding would reduce emissions to an equivalent of removing 50,000-77,000 cars off the road, through reductions in emissions from formula’s dairy industry, transportation, production, and waste. Simultaneously, being able to feed your baby with your body is the best disaster preparedness plan that parents can have, rather than being vulnerable to the increasingly common scenarios of contaminated water sources and climate refugee displacement.