The Science of Mother’s Milk with Dr. Katie Hinde

We had a wonderful meeting with Dr. Katie Hinde on Saturday morning on Zoom. Her topic was The Science of Mother’s Milk and we had 34 people attending.

She is a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable presenter. We learned that mother’s milk is different for male and female babies – more milk for females and richer milk for males. Many of us know that mother’s milk helps develop the baby’s immune system, but there’s another part of milk called oligosaccharides which help build everything needed for the intestines to digest all the complex foods humans eat. These are things she just loves to study and research.

She also discussed how, for quite a while, breastfeeding was considered to be contaminated and formula was better. We’re finally turning this kind of thinking around. Other mothers have a hard time breastfeeding. There is no personal guilt for this as it is a political, institutional, and social issue that must be dealt with on those levels. We need to support mothers’ lactation goals with things like Family Leave, community support, and education.

Dr. Hinde is a well-known speaker, scientist, and advocate who investigates the hormones, food, and medicine contained within mothers’ milk. In 2011 Hinde began the popular science blog Mammals Suck ... Milk!, which has since had over one million views and sponsors the annual March Mammal Madness - a great way for kids and adults to get involved in science in a fun way. She is associate editor of Splash! Milk Science Update.

Here’s one of her short Ted Talks - What we don’t know about Mother’s Milk

She is recognized as a young researcher who has made outstanding, original scientific contributions to the study of human milk. Hinde is a member of the Executive Council of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation. Her research has been featured in National Geographic, Slate Magazine, Science News, The Washington Times and The New York Times. She speaks regularly at international conferences.

Currently, Dr. Hinde is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Senior Sustainability Scientist at Arizona State University, where she researches lactation.

Dr. Hinde attended Seattle Central College and was part of the Running Start and College Transfer programs. She earned a bachelor’s of arts in anthropology from the University of Washington in 1999. She joined University of California, Los Angeles for her doctoral studies, where she was awarded the Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship in 2007. She completed her PhD at UCLA in 2008.