A CIHR National Women's Health Research Initiative grant involving many MILC collaborators has been funded. MILC members on the study team include Carol Dyck (co-founder of Milk Mentors), Drs. Christina Raimondi and Katherine Kearns (co-founders of the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Clinic), Kira Friesen (clinical nurse specialist, HSC),  Narges Khodabandehloo (MSc student), and Meghan Azad (MILC Director). The project is titled, Protecting and supporting breastfeeding and lactation equity in Manitoba through community-integrated education and care using novel technologies, culturally safe and gender affirming approaches. The project is led by Dr. Garry Shen and will expand the Milk Mentors program, develop a lactation course for health care providers, and create a 'lactation support hub' for the province.

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, THRiVE and MILC teamed up with the “r/AskScience, forum on Reddit to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with lactation researchers hailing from the fields of biochemistry, epidemiology, microbiology, neonatology, family medicine, nursing, epigenetics, and biological anthropology. This was a valuable opportunity to take a step back from our day-to-day work and get a snapshot of what the general public is thinking and wondering about breast milk and lactation. Our expert panelists were impressed with how thoughtful and informed the Redditors’ questions were (over 90 in total!) - ranging from lactation pharmacology, antibodies in donor milk and risks/benefits of formula, to infant feeding controversies, lactation-related misinformation, and trans lactation... and much more! This AMA Session was part of our knowledge mobilization efforts at MILC & THRiVE recognizing that public science engagement is a crucial strategy for combating misinformation, increasing interest and accessibility to careers in science, and increasing public support for research funding as well as for public policies that improve reproductive and child health.
The participants were:

• Meghan Azad, PhD - Director of THRiVE & MILC
• Bridget McGann - Biological Anthropologist & Knowledge Translation Consultant at THRiVE & MILC
• Karinne Cardoso Muniz, MD - Neonatologist & MSc Student at THRiVE & MILC
• Christina Raimondi, MD, IBCLC, NABBLM-C - MILC member & Co-Founder/CEO at the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Centre
• Sanoji Wijenayake, PhD - MILC member & Assistant Professor at University of Winnipeg
• Ryan Pace, PhD - Assistant Director of the Biobehavioral Lab at the Health Microbiomes Institute, University of South Florida
• Emma Bhakuni - Neonatal Clinical Support Worker, NHS Foundation Trust in the UK
• Raha Afshariani, MD, IBCLC - Canadian Lactation Consultant Association

​MILC Director Dr. Meghan Azad, together with former MILC postdocs Dr. Sarah Reyes and Dr. Merilee Brockway, published Human milk composition and infant anthropometrics: overview of a systemic review with clinical and research implications in the International Breastfeeding Journal. In this overview of a large systematic review undertaken by the International Milk Composition (IMiC) Consortium, the authors emphasize the limited quality of evidence on the relationship between human milk composition and infant growth. They recommend future research should engage in more accurate data collection using standardized collection strategies, use assays that are validated for human milk, and consider approaches that approach human milk as a biological system rather than discrete individual components. (edited) ​