Milk Shock Research Project

We surveyed over 1500 new moms about how they juggled work, new motherhood, and the world of COVID. Check out our (free) research newsletter to read our preliminary findings about how moms navigated this period and what it might mean in 2025.

"It has made it way harder to be a mom" New Motherhood during COVID and Why it Matters in 2025

The Milk Shock Project is going to take a little pause. Our team is undergoing some big changes and it will take a little while to settle into our new working rhythm. While we’re on hiatus, I hope that you all have an excellent end to the summer and a great start to the fall. We look forward to catching up with you soon!

See you after summer! Milk Shock Project hiatus in 2024

"One of the most important reasons for paid maternity leave is to support breastfeeding..."

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM)* recently released a position statement on the importance of paid maternity leave to supporting breastfeeding and the health of mothers and infants. You can read their full statement online at the link below.

*ABM is "A Worldwide Organization Of Medical Doctors Dedicated To Educating And Empowering Health Professionals To Support And Manage Breastfeeding, Lactation, And Human Milk Feeding."

abm.memberclicks.net

Gig work has been around for a long time, but what did it mean for new moms during the COVID pandemic? Check out our recent research newsletter to see what we're learning about gigs, feeding infants, and workplace shocks during the pandemic.

The Many Gigs of the Working Mom How new moms juggle work, gig work, and breastfeeding

We're passing along this message from the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee: Share your story!

"The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee is collecting stories and testimonials on paid family and medical leave and its impact on the infant feeding experience. Submissions will inform the USBC response to the Request for Information (RFI) on expanding access to paid leave released by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives committed to expanding access to paid leave. Research clearly shows that access to paid family and medical leave makes it easier to start and maintain breastfeeding. Unfortunately, it's not available to millions of families who need it. If your family used or needed paid leave, or if you know someone who did, we want to hear the story so we can help policymakers understand why establishing a national paid leave program is so important. Share a paid leave story with us today!"

Share Your Infant Feeding Story Your story can help inspire a movement! The USBC works with our members and partners to educate policymakers and push for breastfeeding-friendly policy and practice changes for all families. Personal stories and experiences from constituents help...

Preliminary results from our interviews with US moms are in! You can read about it in our research newsletter at the link below.

COVID, workin' moms, and feeding babies: What we learned from our interviews with US Moms Note: the research updates in this newsletter are preliminary/interim and haven’t been peer-reviewed. Please stay tuned for final results! Milk Shock: The COVID & Infant Feeding Research Project is a multi-year, multi-phase project. Our goal is to better understand how COVID affected infant feedin...

Are you interested in hearing more from the Milk Shock Project? Sign up for our monthly newsletter! Every 1-2 months, we will send around a short update on the progress and findings of the project. Each update will explore our key question: How did COVID affect early motherhood (especially breastfeeding, return to work, and childcare)? Sign up at the link below!

Milk Shock Project: Research Updates | Virginia Kotzias | Substack A short newsletter providing updates every 1-2 months on the progress and findings of the Milk Shock Research Project. Each update will explore our key question: How did COVID affect early motherhood (esp. breastfeeding, return to work, and childcare)? Click to read Milk Shock Project: Research Upda...

Motherhood Uncensored, a UK-based charity that aims to “share brazenly honest stories about real experiences….and challeng[e] misconceptions about motherhood,” recently invited the Milk Shock Project to an interview. It was a new experience to be on the other side of the interviewer’s table!

We discussed some of the high-level findings from Milk Shock project so far, and took a short detour through the history of breastfeeding experiences and narratives in the West. Check out a summary of our discussion at the link below!

Breastfeeding is easy, right? Debunking breastfeeding myths and examining the impact of Covid on feeding choices.

Another round of data collection is complete! We have reached our target for the one-on-one interviews to test our new breastfeeding survey and are in the process of analyzing the results. A heartfelt thank you to all of our participants for helping to improve the survey!

New update to the website: Sharing our Findings! Here you can find updates about where we're sharing the results of our research and links to our publications and conferences.

Sharing our Findings Information about publications, poster presentations, and other media resulting from research conducted in the Milk Shock study will be posted here as they become available. On October 5, 2023, the…

We're excited to start the next phase of data collection, which involves testing a new breastfeeding and return-to-work survey. We're seeking US moms to participate in one-on-one interviews to help us assess the survey questions and gain insights into how women decide on infant feeding. We can't wait to begin these interviews!

Interested in participating? See if you're eligible by filling out the form here: https://tinyurl.com/MilkShockResearchEligibility

Research participants wanted! We are looking for moms who gave birth in the US in 2022 to learn more about how their return to work affects how they feed their babies. Moms in retail, hospitality, "gig economy" jobs, and any remote/work from home position are wanted. Eligible participants will be invited to a one-hour interview and receive a $30 Amazon gift card. Sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/MilkShockResearchEligibility

For more information about our project, go to: https://milkshockresearchproject.wordpress.com/

Milk Shock Research Project: Interview Eligibility Form About this research project We are doing research to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected how new mothers made decisions about breastfeeding, mixed feeding, and formula-feeding. This information will be collected in a new survey. We have developed a draft of the survey. Right now, we're ju...