Best Baby Beginnings

03/22/2026

Heidy Sánchez was breastfeeding her infant when immigration agents took her baby from her arms, according to reporting from The Times and The Sunday Times. She was handcuffed, taken into custody, and deported to Cuba just two days later, her breasts still leaking milk. She hasn’t seen her baby in eight months.

Forcibly separating nursing mothers from their newborn babies causes immediate and severe physical and psychological harm. No mother should be forced to endure this cruel separation—ever—and especially not while recovering from childbirth and caring for a newborn.

What’s happening inside these facilities is dangerous and it is wrong. We’re calling on members of Congress to visit ICE detention centers and investigate the conditions in which pregnant detainees and others are being held. Join us and take action today: https://bit.ly/4atlG0R

02/21/2026

Most people picture breast milk as something simple.
White. Plain. Just food.

But this is what it looks like inside.

This is a glimpse of the inside of a breast while it is making milk.
Thousands of tiny milk making sacs, each one filling, flowing, responding in real time to a baby’s needs.

Every drop is alive.

Breast milk is not just nutrition.
It is a living, adaptive system.

It changes by the hour.
By the day.
By the age of the baby.

It adjusts for illness.
For growth spurts.
For comfort.
For survival.

Your body reads your baby’s saliva and responds with antibodies.
It knows when your baby is premature.
It knows when your baby is sick.
It knows when your baby just needs closeness.

No lab can recreate this.
No formula can copy this intelligence.
No machine can replace this connection.

This is biology at its most powerful.
This is love in liquid form.
This is the miracle happening quietly inside millions of women every single day.

And if no one has told you lately
Your body is incredible 🤱

Disclaimer- This image is AI just meant to represent what it may look like. Image by Salud Articular

02/16/2026

From newborn to toddler https://bestbabybeginnings.com/shop/count-the-ways-we-love-baby-baskets/ BestBabyBeginnings.com Best Baby Beginnings

02/04/2026

"This is my minister, Rev. Eric Severson of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland, speaking at yesterday’s rally in response to what’s happening in Minneapolis.

He had just returned from the front lines, answering a call for religious leaders to be present.

The story that has stayed with me most was about an organizer who arrived late because they were delayed from delivering breastmilk to a family with a newborn. The baby was hungry. The mother had been abducted by ICE.

I can’t stop thinking about that moment: a volunteer walking through the cold with a bottle of milk. A woman who expressed her own milk for a child that wasn’t hers. A family receiving it with gratitude. A baby finally fed.

And I can’t stop thinking about the baby’s mother, somewhere in a cell, miles and miles away, her body still painfully producing the food meant for her child that she was taken from.

We are told this is about the 'worst of the worst.' We are told that it is about public safety. And yet, there is a new mother who can’t hold and feed her baby. A baby who had to be fed by a stranger’s kindness.

My heart keeps breaking." -- Sarah Schulz

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--> With the Senate voting this week on DHS funding, it's critical to keep the pressure on: Here's how to take action.

For Senators: Demand no DHS funding until ICE and Border Patrol are reined in and an independent investigation is launched into their widespread abuses. You can call (202) 224-3121 or use the action alert at https://5calls.org/issue/dhs-budget-ice-defund/

For Representatives: Call (202) 224-3121 and demand real oversight of these lawless agencies -- and the launch of an independent investigation into the activities of ICE and the killings of American citizens by DHS agents.

--> To help immigrants who have been arrested or detained, you can support the critical work of the National Immigrant Justice Center at https://immigrantjustice.org/ways-to-help/

--> If you're looking for ways to take action and counter ICE overreach, supporting civil rights organizations like the ACLU that challenge their tactics in the courts has emerged as one of the most successful means of constraining ICE's rapidly expanding enforcement powers -- learn more at https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention

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For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

01/29/2026

Sharing her experience not as advice, or to invalidate anyone else’s. Thanks for that intention!

"I told the pediatrician “no” and it’s all thanks to the Breastfeeding Mama Talk community!

So my son was induced at exactly 37 weeks for risk of preeclampsia, he was born just a few days ago on 1/24/18, he latched on right away, no problem at all.
The next day they checked his sugar because they said he looked jittery, it was low. So the on call Ped came in and said I need to give him formula to balance his sugar levels. I refused! The look on her face was priceless! She looked pi**ed 😡, like no one had ever told her no before. She said fine i’ll send in a lactation consultant and leaves. Than my nurse comes in and says that the Ped wants 3 sugar reading throughout the day and if he passes than he can go home. I said ok, fair enough. So the lactation consultant comes in checks his latch, perfect, so she has me pump for 15 minutes to see how much baby is getting. I pumped 15 ml. !!! I was even amazed as was the consultant! 3 sugar test later and we came home!! NO FORMULA!! My nurse applauded me and let me know she was so proud that I told the doctor no and raises his levels all by myself!!

***It’s true what they say, Your breast milk knows what baby needs!!***

Thank you ladies for giving me the courage to stand up for breast milk!

the picture is of him right after his first latch."

Disclaimer- This is my experience, not a one size fits all rule. Some babies absolutely need formula or medical intervention. Sharing my story does not invalidate anyone else’s.

01/24/2026

🧠 Breastfeeding regulates a baby’s nervous system

When a baby nurses, it is not just about hunger.
It is a full body neurological event.

During breastfeeding, research shows babies experience:

• Lower cortisol levels
Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. Nursing actively reduces it, helping babies move out of fight or flight and into safety and calm.

• More stable heart rates
The rhythm of nursing combined with close contact helps synchronize a baby’s heartbeat with the caregiver’s, creating physiological stability.

• Improved oxygen saturation
Babies breathe more steadily while nursing, which increases oxygen delivery to the brain and body.

This is called biological co regulation.

Babies are born with immature nervous systems.
They cannot self soothe because the neural pathways required for regulation are not fully developed yet.

Instead, they borrow regulation from a caregiver.

Your warmth
Your heartbeat
Your smell
Your breathing
Your hormones

All of it sends the same message to their nervous system:

You are safe.

Over time, repeated moments of co regulation during breastfeeding help wire the baby’s brain for future self regulation.
This is how resilience is built.
This is how emotional regulation begins.

Comfort nursing is not creating dependency.
It is creating capacity.

A baby who is regulated first becomes a child who can regulate later.

This is not opinion.
This is neurobiology.