By Mary Lingwall, BA
My aim in attending APHA was to get a stronger sense of what is going on in the professional field regarding the topics and issues that I am most passionate about—abortion care, breastfeeding outreach and promotion, and racial disparities in health. My secondary aims were to network, make a list of people and organizations I want to keep track of, and identify an area of study that needs more attention paid to it by future professionals (me!).
Overwhelmingly, of all the topics that I am passionate about, racial disparities in health was the most covered at APHA. I was able to attend both the “Racism in Public Health” oral panel and an absolutely fantastic “Reproductive Justice and the Black Lives Matter Movement” roundtable session, both of which focused explicitly on the role of racism in America as it relates to health, happiness, and the ability to live a full, safe, and satisfying life. But race was also a central focus of many other sessions that were not labeled as race-related. For instance, the most memorable parts of the “Maternal Child Health Legacy: Lessons from the Past Informing the Future, Building MCH Policies and Just Communities” were the opening performances by young Chicago writers (all focused on race, racism, and the killing of black people by structural and institutionalized factors) and the comments made by the outstandingly candid panelist and former APHA president, Dr. Murray.
To my great disappointment, abortion access was not well covered at this year’s APHA conference. I attended the “Abortion Taskforce” business meeting (my absolutely favorite session because I was included as a stakeholder and it made me feel really connected) as well as an oral presentation on Abortion access in the Midwest. Both of these sessions were excellent. However, women’s access to abortion is a significant public health policy topic right now in the United States, but this was not even alluded to in the General Assembly. It was an outrageous omission for a conference titled “Health in All Policies.” The crusade to defund Planned Parenthood is widely covered in the news and is topical and relevant to this community of professionals; it was eerie that women were forgotten in this way.
Breastfeeding promotion activities, outreach programs, and science were all well covered at the conference and I enjoyed the oral presentation that I attended. I was able to meet one of my breastfeeding heroes, Dr. McKenna. Dr. McKenna is a lactation professional who is most well known for his empathy and advocacy for bed-sharing as a protective factor in breastfeeding promotion.
Overall, I had a very enjoyable and worthwhile time at APHA and I look forward to attending next year, where I will bring the heat with some well-researched and timely information about the urgency for public health attention to reproductive rights.
Mary Lingwall is a first-year MPH student with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. In her previous career, Mary was a birth and postpartum doula and lactation counselor. Her interests include perinatal mood disorders, breastfeeding promotion and outreach, and abortion access in the South. She plans on graduating in May 2017.
