On October 18, 2019, The Binational Breastfeeding Coalition hosted an amazing speaker for our “Look Who’s Talking” lecture series, Dr. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Ph.D., IBLCLC, RLC. Dr. Kendall-Tackett, a psychologist, is a world renown author, speaker and researcher in the fields of breastfeeding, trauma and mental health. She spent the day with us at University Medical Center, West, 6600 Desert Blvd. North, a beautiful new facility with a great view of the Franklins and the Oregon Mountains.

Dr. Kendall-Tackett delivered two talks: the first was “Does Breastfeeding Protect Mental Health? The Impact of Oxytocin and Stress,” and the second was “Breastfeeding’s Role in Overcoming Trauma and Adversity”. A wide variety of professionals attended, 70 in all: there were nurses, physicians, lactation consultants, speech language pathologists, professors, counselors, community health workers and a few lay people! There were attendees from both the United States and Mexico. We even had a mothers’ area at the back of the room where 6 moms with breastfed babies were able to feel comfortable and never miss a word of the presentations.

Lunch was provided by El Paso Health and there was a special lunch presentation of documentary film, “Birth in Pieces” produced by El Jardin Birth and Family. The film features interviews with new mothers as well as obstetric providers and experts in the field of anthropology and sociology. The movie tied in well with Dr. Kendall-Tackett’s topics, since mothers interviewed were very candid about their trauma and sometimes difficult birth experiences.

We would like to thank University Medical Center of El Paso, El Paso Health, Envision New Mexico at UNM, WIC El Paso, and El Jardin Birth and Family Resource Center. And, in addition, this presentation was partly sponsored with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, REACH grant, facilitated by the American Heart Association.