2019 Conference recording

Watch the hard-hitting presentation by Kimberly Seals Allers from the 2019 Baby Friendly Annual Conference titled, “Minding the gap: The lived experience of BAME women in birth & breastfeeding.”

Kimberly is an award-winning journalist, author of five books, international speaker, strategist and advocate for maternal and infant health. Her presentation was incredibly inspiring and the challenges of race, bias and systemic oppression she puts forward are very relevant during this important time. Kimberly received a standing ovation from the crowd at the conference and delegates consistently described her presentation as thought-provoking, compelling and meaningful. The abstract for the presentation reads:

Black women in the UK are five times more likely to die as a result of complications in their pregnancy than white women. What is the role of race, bias and systemic oppression on the bodies and conditions of care that may be adversely affecting black women and babies in the UK? Kimberly Seals Allers focuses on the experiences, lessons learned and community-centred interventions in the United States. She identifies five key cultural and structural barriers to breastfeeding for the black American community – as well as eight strategies for over-coming barriers, which hold promise for addressing issues of racial disparities in birth and breastfeeding in the UK.

We encourage you to watch Kimberly’s presentation, which can be found here: