Geelong and Surfcoast Doula Services

28/11/2025

Wow
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In 2008, Katie Hinde stood in a California primate lab staring at hundreds of milk samples. Male babies got richer milk. Females got more volume. Science had missed half the conversation.
She was a postdoctoral researcher at the California National Primate Research Center, analyzing milk from rhesus macaque mothers. For months, she'd been measuring fat content, protein levels, mineral concentrations. The data showed something she hadn't expected: monkey mothers were producing completely different milk depending on whether they'd given birth to sons or daughters.
Sons received milk with higher concentrations of fat and protein—more energy per ounce. Daughters received more milk overall, with higher calcium levels. The biological recipe wasn't universal. It was customized.
Hinde ran the numbers again. The pattern held across dozens of mother-infant pairs. This wasn't random variation. This was systematic.
She thought about what she'd been taught in graduate school. Milk was nutrition. Calories, proteins, fats. A delivery system for energy. But if milk was just fuel, why would it differ based on the baby's s*x? Why would mothers unconsciously adjust the formula?
The answer shifted everything: milk wasn't passive. It was a message.
Hinde had arrived at this question through an unusual path. She'd earned her bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Washington, then completed her PhD at UCLA in 2008. While most lactation research focused on dairy cattle or developing infant formulas, Hinde wanted to understand what milk actually did in primate mothers and babies.
At UC Davis, she had access to the largest primate research center in the United States. She could collect milk samples at different stages of lactation, track infant development, measure maternal characteristics. She could ask questions that had never been systematically studied.
Like: why do young mothers produce milk with more stress hormones?
Hinde discovered that first-time monkey mothers produced milk with fewer calories but higher concentrations of cortisol than experienced mothers. Babies who consumed this high-cortisol milk grew faster but were more nervous and less confident. The milk wasn't just feeding the baby's body—it was programming the baby's temperament.
Or: how does milk respond when babies get sick?
Working with researchers who studied infant illness, Hinde found that when babies developed infections, their mothers' milk changed within hours. The white blood cell count in the milk increased dramatically—from around 2,000 cells per milliliter to over 5,000 during acute illness. Macrophage counts quadrupled. The levels returned to normal once the baby recovered.
The mechanism was remarkable: when a baby nurses, small amounts of the baby's saliva travel back through the ni**le into the mother's breast tissue. That saliva contains information about the baby's immune status. If the baby is fighting an infection, the mother's body detects the antigens and begins producing specific antibodies, which then flow back to the baby through the milk.
It was a dialogue. The baby's body communicated its needs. The mother's body responded.
Hinde started documenting everything. She collected milk from over 250 rhesus macaque mothers across more than 700 sampling events. She measured cortisol, adiponectin, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factors. She tracked which babies gained weight faster, which were more exploratory, which were more cautious.
She realized she was mapping a language that had been invisible.
In 2011, Hinde joined Harvard as an assistant professor. She began writing about her findings, but she also noticed something troubling: almost nobody was studying human breast milk with the same rigor applied to other biological systems. When she searched publication databases, she found twice as many studies on erectile dysfunction as on breast milk composition.
The world's first food—the substance that had nourished every human who ever lived—was scientifically neglected.
She started a blog: "Mammals Suck...Milk!" The title was deliberately provocative. Within a year, it had over a million views. Parents, clinicians, researchers started asking questions. What bioactive compounds are in human milk? How does milk from mothers of premature babies differ from milk produced for full-term infants? Can we use this knowledge to improve formulas or help babies in NICUs?
Hinde's research expanded. She studied how milk changes across the day (fat concentration peaks mid-morning). She investigated how foremilk differs from hindmilk (babies with bigger appetites who nurse longer get higher-fat milk at the end of feeding). She examined how maternal characteristics—age, parity, health status, social rank—shaped milk composition.
In 2013, she created March Mammal Madness, a science outreach event that became an annual tradition in hundreds of classrooms. In 2014, she co-authored "Building Babies." In 2016, she received the Ehrlich-Koldovsky Early Career Award from the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation for making outstanding contributions to the field.
By 2017, when she delivered her TED talk, she could articulate what she'd discovered across a decade of research: breast milk is food, medicine, and signal. It builds the baby's body and fuels the baby's behavior. It carries bacteria that colonize the infant gut, hormones that influence metabolism, oligosaccharides that feed beneficial microbes, immune factors that protect against pathogens.
More than 200 varieties of oligosaccharides alone. The baby can't even digest them—they exist to nourish the right community of gut bacteria, preventing harmful pathogens from establishing.
The composition is as unique as a fingerprint. No two mothers produce identical milk. No two babies receive identical nutrition.
In 2020, Hinde appeared in the Netflix docuseries "Babies," explaining her findings to a mass audience. She'd moved to Arizona State University, where she now directs the Comparative Lactation Lab. Her research continues to reveal new dimensions of how milk shapes infant outcomes from the first hours of life through childhood.
She works on precision medicine applications—using knowledge of milk bioactives to help the most fragile infants in neonatal intensive care units. She consults on formula development, helping companies create products that better replicate the functional properties of human milk for mothers who face obstacles to breastfeeding.
The implications extend beyond individual families. Understanding milk informs public health policy, workplace lactation support, clinical recommendations. It reveals how maternal characteristics, environmental conditions, and infant needs interact in real time through a biological messaging system that's been evolving for 200 million years—longer than dinosaurs.
Katie Hinde didn't just study milk. She revealed that the most ancient form of nourishment was also the most sophisticated. What science had treated as simple nutrition was actually a dynamic, responsive communication between two bodies—a conversation that shapes human development one feeding at a time.

24/11/2025

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-29/preterm-birth-prevention-program/105938716?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web&fbclid=IwY2xjawORC1pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR44G9-9VJTI6LaXextcFOaXrELmO-1SmikVG_LxIC0CZNma-rfMormHT4alEQ_aem_-bzdnRZ_KscibczH8xCkRw

A program introduced in Australia in 2018 has led to thousands of fewer babies born early each year, according to a new study.

23/11/2025

In the wee hours of darkness, long after I have tucked my children into bed, when the world sleeps, this is where I have the privilege of deep sacred work with incredible women and their partners. I'm always behind the camera so these images are very precious. Shared with permission. 🥰

21/11/2025

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The American Academy of Pediatrics now advises against sleep training before 12 months. Research shows that forcing babies to sleep alone too early can disrupt attachment and the development of their nervous system. During the first year, babies need proximity to caregivers to feel safe and secure.

Sleeping in the parents’ room is more than convenience. It provides constant reassurance, allowing the infant’s nervous system to learn safety and stability. This closeness supports emotional regulation, stress management, and secure bonding, all of which are foundational for long-term mental and emotional health.

Babies who are left alone too soon may experience heightened stress responses, making it harder for them to self-soothe and regulate emotions later. Proximity during sleep wires the brain to understand that the world is predictable and safe.

Parents can implement safe room-sharing by keeping the crib or bassinet next to the bed, maintaining a firm sleep surface, and avoiding loose bedding. This setup allows babies to sleep safely while staying close enough to benefit from the calming presence of their caregivers.

Remember, proximity is not spoiling. It is a biological necessity that helps babies thrive. Safe closeness today builds confident, resilient children tomorrow.

12/11/2025

ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula

We believe in feeding freedom. Feeding our babies is a universal way we show our love in those beautiful and blurry early days of parenthood. At ByHeart, well-fed means a balanced blend of nature and science — for babies’ health and parents’ peace of mind.

08/11/2025

Four babies in just under two years. Each pregnancy nearly took her life. And in Ireland, birth control was still against the law.

It was 1968. Mary McGee was only twenty-four when her first pregnancy pushed her to the edge. She developed pre-eclampsia and dangerously high blood pressure. She survived, but only by a thread.

Doctors warned her that another pregnancy could be worse. But in Ireland, contraception had been banned since the 1930s. The Church called it sinful. Doctors couldn’t prescribe it. Pharmacies couldn’t sell it. Even bringing it in from another country was forbidden.

So Mary had no real way to protect herself.

Then came another pregnancy. And another. And another.

Four high-risk pregnancies in twenty-three months. Four times her body almost gave out.

During her third pregnancy, she slipped into a coma for four days. Her family braced for the worst. She made it through, but her doctor didn’t mince words. One more pregnancy could kill her.

He knew she needed contraception to stay alive, so he broke the rules and ordered it from the UK. It never reached her. Irish customs seized the package, and she and her husband received a warning that if they tried again, they could face charges.

Charges. For trying to stay alive.

Most people would have given up. The law, the Church, and decades of tradition were all against her.

Mary chose to fight back.

She took the Irish government to court, arguing that the state had no right to force a woman to risk death by blocking access to contraception.

In 1972, the High Court rejected her case and upheld the ban. Mary didn’t stop. She appealed to the Supreme Court.

There, the case came down to one painful question. Could the country force a woman to choose between survival and her faith?

During the hearing, someone asked Mary’s husband, Shay, how he felt about his wife using contraceptives. A devoted Catholic, he simply said, “I’d rather see her use them than be placing flowers on her grave.”

On December 19, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor. The judges declared that married couples had a constitutional right to privacy. That right included making decisions about contraception. The ban was no longer valid.

Legal scholars still describe the ruling as one of the most important in Irish history.

It didn’t change everything overnight. It took six more years before contraception could be legally prescribed to married couples. It took until 1985 before people could buy condoms without major restrictions. Full access didn’t arrive until 1993.

Twenty years for change to truly take hold. But it happened because Mary refused to accept a law that put her life at risk.

The backlash was fierce. The Sunday after the ruling, a priest called out Mary and her husband by name during Mass. They stood up, walked out, and never returned. In 1973 Ireland, that was no small thing.

But Mary had already risked her privacy and her reputation by sharing her story publicly. She did it because she believed no woman should have to choose between survival and obedience to a law written by others.

Mary never sought fame. She raised her children, worked, and lived a steady life. But what she achieved changed far more than her own future.

Her case established privacy as a constitutional right. That groundwork supported countless later victories — from reproductive rights to equality for LGBTQ+ people to marriage equality. Every step forward rested partly on the foundation she helped build.

Today, women in Ireland can make decisions about their own bodies without fear of prosecution. They can live with choices Mary once had to fight for in court.

Mary was twenty-four when her body started breaking under the weight of repeated pregnancies. She was twenty-nine when she stood up to her government and won.

She’s eighty-one now. She has lived more than five decades in the Ireland she helped shape — a place where women aren’t forced to risk death just to follow the law.

All because one young mother decided her life mattered.

She didn’t set out to lead a movement. She simply refused to die quietly.

And sometimes, that’s all it takes to change a country.

Mary McGee: mother, fighter, and the woman who showed that courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s just someone saying “enough” — and standing firm.

01/11/2025

After ACM advocacy, there are two new item that have been added to MBS items for midwives as of today 1 November - further acknowledgement of the essential role midwives play in providing safe, high quality, woman centred care. These changes will help improve access to services while receiving midwifery led continuity of care.

Changes include:
• Expansion of ultrasound imaging requesting rights to include MBS item 55065 (pelvic ultrasound).
• Introduction of requesting rights for MBS items 73420 and 73421 for Rhesus D (Rh D) non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for eligible pregnant patients.

30/10/2025

A rite of passage for our daughters

30/10/2025

Find out how modern cloth reusable nappies are a great alternative to disposables, gain hands-on experience, all while reducing waste sent to landfill and saving money!

27/10/2025

A free birth is when a woman chooses to have a baby, usually at home, without a registered midwife or doctor in attendance. It’s much riskier than a planned home birth.