ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Katie Hinde - Lactation researcher
Katie Hinde is studying breast milk’s status as the first superfood, providing babies with invaluable microbes custom-tailored to their individual needs, via an incredible and unlikely dialogue between the mother’s enzymes and the baby’s saliva.

Why you should listen

Did you know mother's milk is older than dinosaurs? Or that the "biological recipe" of milk differs for sons and daughters? Or that milk doesn't just build babies but fuels them too? Mother's milk is the food, medicine and message that organize a baby's brain, body and behavior. What we take for granted in the grocery store dairy aisle has been shaped by hundreds of millions of years of natural selection. As scientists decode the mysteries of milk, we gain essential new tools for human health and well-being.

Scientist, writer and advocate, Katie Hinde, PhD, explores the dynamic interactions between mothers, milk, and infants. Author of dozens of essays and academic articles, Hinde situates her work at the intersection of the life sciences and social sciences to inform parents, clinicians and policy-makers about institutional and inter-personal support of mothers and babies. Hinde co-authored the book Building Babies and founded the science outreach blog, "Mammals Suck…Milk!"

Hinde earned a PhD in Anthropology at UCLA, completed post-doctoral training in neuroscience at the California National Primate Research Center, and then launched her faculty career in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Now an Associate Professor, Hinde is the Director of the Comparative Lactation Lab in the Center for Evolution and Medicine and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

Described as "The Milk Maven" in the inaugural Grist 50 list of "innovators, organizers and visionaries who will lead us toward a more sustainable future," Hinde's work was highlighted for tackling social justice in health and research. From considering how milk feeds microbes to researching how milk shapes infant behavior , her research has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, La Presse, Wall Street Journal, Quartz and more. Hinde has been recognized with Early Career Awards from the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and the American Society of Primatologists for making outstanding, original contributions to these fields as a young investigator.

Importantly, Hinde is dedicated to science outreach and building enthusiasm for animals, ecology and behavior. In 2013, Hinde created the annual March Mammal Madness, a month-long science outreach extravaganza that is used in hundreds of classrooms described by Deadspin Deputy Editor Barry Petchesky as "the only bracket you need."

Understanding milk can directly translate to more personalized clinical recommendations and health optimization for mothers and their infants as well as substantiate the importance of infrastructure and institutional support for breastfeeding. Further, identifying the composition and function of milk informs the formulation of more representative artificial breast milk for those mothers facing obstacles or contraindications to breastfeeding. Lastly, decoding mother's milk will allow for enhanced precision medicine for the most fragile infants and children in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Such integrative approaches to mother's milk take discoveries at the bench to applications at the bedside.

More profile about the speaker
Katie Hinde | Speaker | TED.com
TEDWomen 2016

Katie Hinde: What we don't know about mother's milk

Filmed:
1,413,994 views

Breast milk grows babies' bodies, fuels neurodevelopment, provides essential immunofactors and safeguards against famine and disease -- why, then, does science know more about tomatoes than mother's milk? Katie Hinde shares insights into this complex, life-giving substance and discusses the major gaps scientific research still needs to fill so we can better understand it.
- Lactation researcher
Katie Hinde is studying breast milk’s status as the first superfood, providing babies with invaluable microbes custom-tailored to their individual needs, via an incredible and unlikely dialogue between the mother’s enzymes and the baby’s saliva. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Have you ever heard the one
about how breastfeeding is free?
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(Laughter)
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Yeah, it's pretty funny,
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because it's only free if we don't value
women's time and energy.
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Any mother can tell you
how much time and energy it takes
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to liquify her body --
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to literally dissolve herself --
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(Laughter)
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as she feeds this precious
little cannibal.
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(Laughter)
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Milk is why mammals suck.
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At Arizona State University,
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in the Comparative Lactation Lab,
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I decode mothers' milk composition
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to understand its complexity
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and how it influences infant development.
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01:00
The most important thing that I've learned
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is that we do not do enough
to support mothers and babies.
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And when we fail mothers and babies,
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we fail everyone
who loves mothers and babies:
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the fathers, the partners,
the grandparents, the aunties,
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the friends and kin
that make our human social networks.
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It's time that we abandon
simple solutions and simple slogans,
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01:29
and grapple with the nuance.
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I was very fortunate
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to run smack-dab
into that nuance very early,
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during my first interview
with a journalist
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when she asked me,
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"How long should a mother
breastfeed her baby?"
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And it was that word "should"
that brought me up short,
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because I will never tell a woman
what she should do with her body.
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Babies survive and thrive
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because their mother's milk
is food, medicine and signal.
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For young infants,
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mother's milk is a complete diet
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that provides all the building
blocks for their bodies,
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that shapes their brain
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and fuels all of their activity.
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Mother's milk also feeds the microbes
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that are colonizing
the infant's intestinal tract.
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Mothers aren't just eating for two,
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they're eating for two to the trillions.
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Milk provides immunofactors
that help fight pathogens
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and mother's milk provides hormones
that signal to the infant's body.
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02:36
But in recent decades,
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we have come to take milk for granted.
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We stopped seeing
something in plain sight.
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We began to think of milk as standardized,
homogenized, pasteurized,
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packaged, powdered,
flavored and formulated.
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We abandoned the milk of human kindness
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and turned our priorities elsewhere.
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02:58
At the National Institutes of Health
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in Washington DC
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is the National Library of Medicine,
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which contains 25 million articles --
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the brain trust of life science
and biomedical research.
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We can use keywords
to search that database,
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and when we do that,
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we discover nearly a million
articles about pregnancy,
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but far fewer about
breast milk and lactation.
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When we zoom in on the number of articles
just investigating breast milk,
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03:29
we see that we know much more
about coffee, wine and tomatoes.
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03:34
(Laughter)
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We know over twice as much
about erectile dysfunction.
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03:40
(Laughter)
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I'm not saying we shouldn't
know about those things --
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I'm a scientist, I think
we should know about everything.
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03:49
But that we know so much less --
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(Laughter)
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about breast milk --
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the first fluid a young mammal
is adapted to consume --
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should make us angry.
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Globally, nine out of 10 women will
have at least one child in her lifetime.
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04:04
That means that nearly 130 million
babies are born each year.
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These mothers and babies
deserve our best science.
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04:13
Recent research has shown
that milk doesn't just grow the body,
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it fuels behavior
and shapes neurodevelopment.
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In 2015, researchers discovered
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that the mixture of breast milk
and baby saliva --
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specifically, baby saliva --
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causes a chemical reaction
that produces hydrogen peroxide
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that can kill staph and salmonella.
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And from humans and other mammal species,
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we're starting to understand
that the biological recipe of milk
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04:41
can be different when produced
for sons or daughters.
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04:45
When we reach for donor milk
in the neonatal intensive care unit,
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or formula on the store shelf,
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04:51
it's nearly one-size-fits-all.
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04:53
We aren't thinking about how sons
and daughters may grow at different rates,
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04:58
or different ways,
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04:59
and that milk may be a part of that.
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05:02
Mothers have gotten the message
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05:04
and the vast majority of mothers
intend to breastfeed,
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05:07
but many do not reach
their breastfeeding goals.
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05:11
That is not their failure;
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05:13
it's ours.
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05:15
Increasingly common medical conditions
like obesity, endocrine disorders,
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05:20
C-section and preterm births
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all can disrupt the underlying
biology of lactation.
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05:25
And many women do not have
knowledgeable clinical support.
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05:29
Twenty-five years ago,
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the World Health Organization
and UNICEF established criteria
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for hospitals to be
considered baby friendly --
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05:37
that provide the optimal level
of support for mother-infant bonding
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and infant feeding.
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05:43
Today, only one in five babies
in the United States
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is born in a baby-friendly hospital.
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This is a problem,
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because mothers can grapple
with many problems
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in the minutes, hours, days
and weeks of lactation.
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They can have struggles
with establishing latch,
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with pain,
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with milk letdown
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and perceptions of milk supply.
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These mothers deserve
knowledgeable clinical staff
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that understand these processes.
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06:14
Mothers will call me as they're
grappling with these struggles,
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crying with wobbly voices.
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06:23
"It's not working.
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This is what I'm supposed
to naturally be able to do.
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Why is it not working?"
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And just because something
is evolutionarily ancient
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doesn't mean that it's easy
or that we're instantly good at it.
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You know what else
is evolutionarily ancient?
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(Laughter)
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Sex.
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And nobody expects us
to start out being good at it.
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(Laughter)
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Clinicians best deliver
quality equitable care
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when they have continuing education
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06:58
about how to best support
lactation and breastfeeding.
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And in order to have
that continuing education,
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we need to anchor it
to cutting-edge research
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in both the life sciences
and the social sciences,
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because we need to recognize
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that too often
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historical traumas and implicit biases
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sit in the space between
a new mother and her clinician.
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The body is political.
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If our breastfeeding support
is not intersectional,
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it's not good enough.
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And for moms who have to return for work,
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because countries like the United States
do not provide paid parental leave,
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they can have to go back in as short
as just a few days after giving birth.
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How do we optimize
mother and infant health
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just by messaging
about breast milk to moms
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without providing
the institutional support
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that facilitates
that mother-infant bonding
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to support breastfeeding?
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The answer is: we can't.
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08:03
I'm talking to you, legislators,
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and the voters who elect them.
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I'm talking to you, job creators
and collective bargaining units,
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and workers, and shareholders.
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We all have a stake
in the public health of our community,
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and we all have a role
to play in achieving it.
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Breast milk is a part
of improving human health.
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In the NICU, when infants are born
early or sick or injured,
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milk or bioactive constituents in milk
can be critically important.
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Environments or ecologies,
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or communities where there's
high risk of infectious disease,
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breast milk can be incredibly protective.
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Where there are emergencies
like storms and earthquakes,
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when the electricity goes out,
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when safe water is not available,
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breast milk can keep babies
fed and hydrated.
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And in the context of humanitarian crises,
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like Syrian mothers fleeing war zones,
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the smallest drops can buffer babies
from the biggest global challenges.
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But understanding breast milk
is not just about messaging to mothers
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and policy makers.
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It's also about understanding
what is important in breast milk
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so that we can deliver better formulas
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to moms who cannot or do not
breastfeed for whatever reason.
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We can all do a better job
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of supporting the diversity
of moms raising their babies
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in a diversity of ways.
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As women around the world struggle
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to achieve political,
social and economic equality,
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we must reimagine motherhood
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as not the central,
core aspect of womanhood,
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but one of the many potential facets
of what makes women awesome.
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It's time.
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(Applause)
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▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Katie Hinde - Lactation researcher
Katie Hinde is studying breast milk’s status as the first superfood, providing babies with invaluable microbes custom-tailored to their individual needs, via an incredible and unlikely dialogue between the mother’s enzymes and the baby’s saliva.

Why you should listen

Did you know mother's milk is older than dinosaurs? Or that the "biological recipe" of milk differs for sons and daughters? Or that milk doesn't just build babies but fuels them too? Mother's milk is the food, medicine and message that organize a baby's brain, body and behavior. What we take for granted in the grocery store dairy aisle has been shaped by hundreds of millions of years of natural selection. As scientists decode the mysteries of milk, we gain essential new tools for human health and well-being.

Scientist, writer and advocate, Katie Hinde, PhD, explores the dynamic interactions between mothers, milk, and infants. Author of dozens of essays and academic articles, Hinde situates her work at the intersection of the life sciences and social sciences to inform parents, clinicians and policy-makers about institutional and inter-personal support of mothers and babies. Hinde co-authored the book Building Babies and founded the science outreach blog, "Mammals Suck…Milk!"

Hinde earned a PhD in Anthropology at UCLA, completed post-doctoral training in neuroscience at the California National Primate Research Center, and then launched her faculty career in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Now an Associate Professor, Hinde is the Director of the Comparative Lactation Lab in the Center for Evolution and Medicine and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

Described as "The Milk Maven" in the inaugural Grist 50 list of "innovators, organizers and visionaries who will lead us toward a more sustainable future," Hinde's work was highlighted for tackling social justice in health and research. From considering how milk feeds microbes to researching how milk shapes infant behavior , her research has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, La Presse, Wall Street Journal, Quartz and more. Hinde has been recognized with Early Career Awards from the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and the American Society of Primatologists for making outstanding, original contributions to these fields as a young investigator.

Importantly, Hinde is dedicated to science outreach and building enthusiasm for animals, ecology and behavior. In 2013, Hinde created the annual March Mammal Madness, a month-long science outreach extravaganza that is used in hundreds of classrooms described by Deadspin Deputy Editor Barry Petchesky as "the only bracket you need."

Understanding milk can directly translate to more personalized clinical recommendations and health optimization for mothers and their infants as well as substantiate the importance of infrastructure and institutional support for breastfeeding. Further, identifying the composition and function of milk informs the formulation of more representative artificial breast milk for those mothers facing obstacles or contraindications to breastfeeding. Lastly, decoding mother's milk will allow for enhanced precision medicine for the most fragile infants and children in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Such integrative approaches to mother's milk take discoveries at the bench to applications at the bedside.

More profile about the speaker
Katie Hinde | Speaker | TED.com