In Metro Detroit, Tameka Jackson-Dyer, BASc, IBCLC, CHW, is working at the intersection of clinical care and community advocacy to advance maternal health equity. As an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, public health leader and owner of CrazyMilkLady Lactation Support Services, LLC, Jackson-Dyer has spent nearly two decades making the case that infant feeding is not merely a personal lifestyle choice. It is a public health imperative, a matter of reproductive justice and a foundational part of community health.
In Detroit, breastfeeding rates among Black families are approximately 30%, according to SEMI, highlighting a racial gap in breastfeeding outcomes. Statewide, 50.9% of Black children in Michigan have received breast milk, compared with 68.5% of white children, according to Lactation Matters.
The disparity shows a range of systemic barriers, including maternity care inequities and workplace policies that can make it hard for Black mothers to continue breastfeeding after returning to work.
During National Breastfeeding Month and Black Breastfeeding Week, Auntie Magazine honors Jackson-Dyer for her work to dismantle these systemic barriers, address persistent health disparities and ensure Black mothers receive the dignified, culturally congruent care they deserve.
How Does Culturally Congruent Care Address Health Disparities for Black Mothers?
For generations, structural racism, implicit bias and institutional inequities inside healthcare settings have compromised the birthing and postpartum experiences of Black women. CDC data continue to show persistent racial gaps in breastfeeding initiation and duration. Those disparities are shaped by a range of factors, including access to lactation support, workplace conditions and broader structural inequities.
Jackson-Dyer addresses these disparities at their root. By embedding culturally congruent care into every layer of her practice, she works to ensure that mothers are supported by clinicians who understand their communities, experiences and specific barriers to breastfeeding.
“It was very early in my career when I began to see that breastfeeding, particularly for Black families, was not a ‘lifestyle choice’ but a public health issue,” Jackson-Dyer explained.
Reframing low breastfeeding rates as a systemic issue shifts the conversation from individual blame to institutional accountability.
As Executive Director of the Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color (SEMI), Jackson-Dyer mentors incoming clinicians of color, building an expansive pipeline of care providers equipped to serve vulnerable communities. Through strategic initiatives like the Warm Referral Network—a collaborative framework that links hospital birthing centers directly to community-based doulas—SEMI helps bridge the gap between hospital discharge and long-term postpartum support.
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Tameka Jackson-Dyer on Why Policymakers Must Listen to Black Mothers
The Black maternal mortality crisis in the United States highlights a reality Jackson-Dyer has confronted throughout her career: Black women’s concerns are not always heard or adequately addressed in medical settings. Jackson-Dyer centers her clinical philosophy around a simple, unyielding truth popularized by maternal health advocates– “Listen to Black mothers.”
When mothers express that a symptom feels wrong during the postpartum period, clinical staff must respond with swift, empathetic intervention rather than dismissal. Jackson-Dyer also emphasized that clinical interventions alone do not address the economic structures that shape a mother’s ability to recover and continue breastfeeding.
“If policymakers listened, we would have paid maternity leave for every postpartum person, regardless of their employment,” Jackson-Dyer stated, pointing out that the Family and Medical Leave Act provides eligible workers with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave, but taking unpaid time away from work remains financially out of reach for many low-income workers.
The passionate advocate stressed that Black mothers are statistically overrepresented in hourly jobs lacking comprehensive benefits; many face difficult choices about returning to work after giving birth.
Jackson-Dyer also identified several structural barriers that can affect breastfeeding outcomes, including unpaid leave, implicit bias in hospitals and a lack of provider diversity. Her advocacy focuses on expanding paid leave, strengthening clinical lactation support and building a more diverse pipeline of providers through SEMI.
Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Self-Care and the Future of Community Health Worker Networks
Building a sustainable business model around services that have historically been undervalued by commercial health insurance requires strategic resilience. To maintain her financial stability while continuing to provide community-based care, Jackson-Dyer diversified her enterprise.
Beyond direct patient consultations through CrazyMilkLady Lactation Support Services, she consults and does seminars for various public health organizations and trains hospital clinical staff across the nation.
Yet, the dedicated boss explained that mission-driven advocacy carries a heavy emotional burden. For Jackson-Dyer, practicing self-care is not an indulgence—it is a necessary act of preservation.
“Self-care is not selfish, and rest is resistance,” Jackson-Dyer affirmed, urging emerging community health worker leaders to recognize their intrinsic value. “Know your worth and then add tax. If you don’t recognize your value, no one else will.”
Through her work as an IBCLC, coalition leader and mentor, Jackson-Dyer continues to challenge the barriers facing Black mothers and their babies.
Her message is clear: When Black women are heard, supported and given the resources to thrive, their communities benefit, too.
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