KT - THRIVE DISCOVERY LAB

THRiVE Science Communication
and Knowledge Translation Initiatives

In our research we’ve learned a lot about how breastfeeding impacts human health. But in order for people to apply science in their lives, it needs to be understood by more than just scientists: the general public, clinicians who apply it in their practice, and policymakers. Here are some of the ways we bring our research out of the lab and into the lives of the people for whom it matters most.

Public Literacy in Lactation Science

These days, a lot of people are aware of the health impacts of breastfeeding and human milk. Why, then, do so many people seem to struggle with breastfeeding, and end up feeling let down (See what we did there?) by their experience with it?

Research has shown that the things that most often determine how easy or hard breastfeeding is for us, are our life circumstances, the beliefs that those around us have about breastfeeding, and how well our friends, families, and medical care providers understand how it actually works. It is therefore very valuable for us as researchers to understand how media and social environments shape breastfeeding beliefs, practices, and population-level trends.

In the digital age, misinformation threatens decades of public health efforts to revive breastfeeding after a steep decline in the 21st century. AI is making this landscape ever more complex and fraught for parents, with the burden disproportionally born. We track media coverage of breastfeeding research and the popular discourse around it, to try to understand how we might change the landscape in which families are trying to breastfeed, and make breastfeeding easier, more realistic, and sustainable for families, as well as socially normalized in society.

By understanding breastfeeding as a science literacy issue, we open up tried-and-true tools long used by science communicators and public health advocates to teach people how to protect themselves from misinformation and make informed decisions about their health.

Annual Reddit “Ask Me Anything”

Every year during World Breastfeeding Week (the first week of August), we host a public Q&A ("Ask Me Anything") on Reddit's r/AskScience forum, where anyone can ask our team questions about lactation science. It's a chance for us to step back from our day-to-day research and get a snapshot of what the general public is curious about.

Our 2025 AMA received about 81,000 views, 98 shares, and 32 questions—and we've been consistently impressed by how thoughtful and engaged participants are. Redditors have asked about topics ranging from the adaptive biology of milk production and composition, to breastfeeding and infant sleep, to safety questions about toxins, microplastics, and medications. Many questions have also touched on gaps in research, medical training, and support—reflecting a strong public appetite for more and better lactation science.

These conversations help us address misinformation, spark interest in careers in lactation research, and build public support for both research funding and breastfeeding-supportive policy. It's also a way to reach parents and students who may not have access to lactation expertise in their communities.

This has become a tradition our whole team looks forward to every year and is a fun break from the everyday life of academia! You can check out our AMAs from 2024 and 2025.

Breastfeeding Education in K-12 School

We believe that one of the most powerful ways to normalize breastfeeding is to teach children about it before social stigmas take hold. We also know that children can be vectors of education for the adults in their lives—what they learn in school often makes its way to the dinner table.

Several U.S. states, including Arkansas and Alabama, have passed legislation mandating lactation education at the K-12 level, and we hope to see more states and provinces follow.

Working with a team from the Science Art and Writing Trust in the UK, we have developed lesson plans for grades 1 through 3 that explore baby mammals and their adaptations, milk composition as a survival strategy, and the fascinating world of the human milk microbiome. These lessons are currently being piloted by teachers in Canada and the U.S. This work builds on previous work our team did on the impact of breastfeeding education on children's attitudes.

In 2021, several members of our lab did a “Girls in Science” event hosted by the Let's Talk Science Team at the University of Manitoba, where they talked about their educational backgrounds, what projects they work on, and why they love being scientists.

Lactation Science Education in Higher Education

Healthcare providers are often the first people parents turn to for guidance on breastfeeding, yet many clinicians report feeling underprepared to support them. Research on medical education has indicated that physicians, nurses, and other health professionals want more training in lactation science, and we're working to help fill that gap.

We help to develop professional development content, such as workshops designed to give healthcare providers a deeper, evidence-based understanding of human lactation and the practical skills to support breastfeeding families.

We also advocate for stronger integration of lactation science into medical and health professional curricula, so that future clinicians graduate with the knowledge they need to confidently guide parents through this fraught part of early parenthood, and a nuanced understanding of how life circumstances that shape breastfeeding outcomes.

Whether communication is taking place in the exam room or a public platform, lactation experts are learning to talk about their research in a way that is both scientifically accurate and validating of parents varied experiences.

Human Milk Documentary

When talking about why he did science communication, astronomer Carl Sagan said, “When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.” Well, we think lactation science is awesome, and the world should know it!

So, we are developing a documentary about human lactation science. Our team spent nine months reviewing existing documentaries and media on breastfeeding, and we saw an opportunity to move this subject beyond cheesy medical-education videos and sensationalist popular discourse, and create a genre-defying science film (actually, we think a streaming series would be cool!) with the kind of cinematic scope and scientific rigor as the NatGeo and BBC nature documentaries we all grew up loving.

We aim to tell this story with the production quality it deserves, including high-quality animated explainers that inspire wonder and delight. The project is still in early development, and we look forward to sharing more as it progresses.

Lactation and Sustainable Futures

Human milk is a renewable, adaptive, and personalized source of nutrition - yet it is rarely discussed in conversations about food systems, climate resilience, or planetary health.

We are developing an ambitious interdisciplinary project to position lactation as a keystone of sustainable food systems. Despite the environmental and food security implications of infant feeding, most countries have not integrated breastfeeding into their climate resilience planning, and the global environmental footprint of the commercial milk formula industry has never been comprehensively described.

Through this initiative, we aim to advance a more rigorous global research agenda on human milk, protect parents from misinformation in the age of AI, and reimagine workplaces and communities so that breastfeeding becomes a sustainable, accessible choice for all families - especially those most vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and climate-related food insecurity. This work will generate research publications, policy recommendations, and public engagement opportunities.