About The Lactation College on Substack

Hi. My name is Barbara L. Philipp, MD. I am a Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, in Boston, MA, USA, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. I am a practicing pediatrician who likes to write, teach, study, and talk about lactation - and help as many breastfeeding mothers as possible.

This site started in January 2021 to help anyone who wants to learn about breastfeeding and also to help candidates taking the IBCLC exam. It has always bothered me that most doctors and nurses get minimal to no education on breastfeeding in their training.

I thought I might be able to take important topics, break them down, make them understandable, and figure out a way to help the learner remember important points.

And what if the learning could be for free?

The great news is that The Lactation College on Substack has been a big success. As we start this new Semester, this site now has thousands of subscribers.

This is how it works. A Semester runs for about five months. The classes, in the form of newsletters that come to you as emails, are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in English and Spanish.

As the Semester rolls along, all posts can be found by clicking on “See All” or “Archive”. If you join mid-Semester, no worries, all the posts are there.

To start, you can go to the The Lactation College on Substack and read it first, or you can subscribe and then read the post. Subscribing means providing your email information so that as soon as a topic is posted it will go directly to your email box. Obviously, the free option is free to all. Emails are not shared.

In an effort to keep the free site going, I also created a paywall of $8 a month or $50 a year. Join the paid option and you will receive:

  • Research Thursday - a weekly post about a research article in the field of lactation

  • Pediatric Pearls on Tuesdays. This started in March 2023 with the goal being to discuss common pediatric issues. I started from the head and am working our way down and around the world of pediatrics. The first Pediatric Pearl post was Infant’s Head - Bumps, Lumps and Soft Spots. My favorite Pediatric Pearl Post so far was Infant’s Airway - Understanding Laryngomalacia. All the posts on TORCH infections have refreshed my memory!

We have a new sister site, Lactation College, where you can go to take a course, learn and obtain CERP, CEU (nursing) and CME (provider) credits. Each course is about one hour long and costs $14 per. Some of the proceeds from course sales also will go to keep The Lactation College on Substack up and running. Check it out: Link to Lactation College

I realize this is a little confusing. I never in a million years thought this Substack site on breastfeeding would be so popular. It’s an awesome problem to have!

Thanks so much for your interest, support, and for ALL YOU DO for breastfeeding moms and babies. It takes a village for sure.

I can be reached at babydoctor53@gmail.com.

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The first goal of this site is to provide information, free of charge, to help candidates pass the IBCLC exam. The second goal is to provide Information for anyone who is interested in learning about lactation and breastfeeding.

People

Pediatrician, Professor of Pediatrics, Teacher, Writer, Co-creator of the online educational credit site lactationcollege.com, Author of The Breastfeeding Blueprint, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, True believer in the importance of breastfeeding for all