Kiddada Green, the co-founder of Black Breastfeeding Week, is my guest on the podcast this week. Kiddada lives in Detroit, and also the Founding Executive Director of Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association, which was first set up in 2007 to reduce racial inequities in breastfeeding support for black families.
As a thought leader and innovator, Kiddada has made huge strides in the area of breastfeeding support, and policy making. She serves on various committees and special projects and has had work published internationally in Breastfeeding Medicine and other noteworthy publications. It’s no surprise she has been the recipient of many awards for the work she does and continues to do in support of black maternal and child health.
Celebrating 10 years of Black Breastfeeding Week
Black Breastfeeding Week has been running since 2012 and is marking its 10th anniversary this year.
Looking back on the past ten years, Kiddada explains the reasons why she and her other co-founders Kimberly Seals Allers and Anayah Sangodele-Ayoka first felt the need to set up Black Breastfeeding Week to bring greater awareness to breastfeeding in black and brown communities.
Kiddada tells us about the exciting things in store for this year's Black Breastfeeding Week celebration, including an awards ceremony happening in New York City on 30th August. She also lets us know about the fundraising they are doing to support the work of Black Breastfeeding Week - which is run purely by volunteers.
Kiddada also explains the poignancy of this year's theme: 'A New Foundation'
A New Foundation
Kiddada gives us an insight into how she and her co-founders came up with this year's theme 'a new foundation' - how it organically came about and how ultimately they were inspired by Beyonce's new album Renaissance.
Speaking about the 2022 theme for Black Breastfeeding Week, Kiddada says: "We feel like Black Breastfeeding Week is at a pivitol point. We want to respect the traditions and history of black women and breastfeeding and at the same time look at what's been done despite the historical trauma and atrocities that have happened. We wanted to keep that in mind whilst looking at this new foundation which has been born through community. We're excited by that and what will come in the next ten years."
