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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️

@bridgetmcgann.medsky.social

4.7K followers 5.4K following 3.5K posts

Bioanthropologist & curator of #LactFacts Doing: #LactSci & #SciComm @ #THRiVELab 🤱🏾 CU Denver grad student • Did: #MarchforScience crappy violinist • drochghaeilgeoir ☘️ Neurospicy 🌈🦋 • nuance, kindness, hope THRiVEdiscovery.ca

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · Nov 15

1. Hi new friends! Linked in this first tweet is my “About me/what kind of content I post” thread. It has been temporarily unpinned to make room for Item 2.

2. Hi old friends! I promised you BlueSky primers and pro tips. I will drop those in the rest of THIS thread.

bsky.app/profile/brid...

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · Jul 4

👋🏼 About me!

I'm an anthropologist who studies babies, and how their behavior and physiology is shaped by the unique way that we feed our babies as mammals: lactation.

🧪

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 13h

A lot of countries have merged the two worlds better than the US has—leveraging the best of what science-based medicine has to offer while also retaining a humanistic, woman-centered model of care (which has in fact been studied and shown to improve outcomes).

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 16h

It did predate that period. But two big changes happened around that time that time: 1. Improved formula ingredients, and 2. Physicians (that is, men) started becoming more involved in telling mothers how to raise children. Previously childbirth/childrearing was the domain of women/their midwives

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 21h

Most of the sexualization of the female breast happened from the 1950s onward, when infant formula use became widespread, and male doctors became more involved in childbirth and telling mothers how to raise children.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 21h

That’s because you’ve been encultured as a Westerner. But also, our concepts of marital sex and privacy aren’t universal. But also, bed is not the only place to have sex!

Also, kids don’t always sleep with their parents. In some cultures they night-wean by having them sleep with someone else.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Now the woman’s body is the man’s property. Breastfeeding, if done at all, is viewed as a time where the baby temporarily “borrows“ mom’s breasts from dad.

The final step was advertising campaigns started using breasts to sell things in the 2nd half of the 20th century → cultural conditioning.

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

It also had the effect of facilitating—along with the expansion of single-family homes to include multiple bedrooms—separate-room sleep for children. Evangelical leaders and doctors, concerned about the “marital bed” and pseudoscientific sexual beliefs told parents to give kids separate bedrooms.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

The invention of formula was necessary for the sexualization of breasts, because it facilitated the separation of the maternal-infant dyad, and earlier weaning. The end result of this was reduced exposure of men and boys to the normal function of the breast.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

It wasn’t the puritans!
Here’s a woodcut of two Puritan women breastfeeding, uncovered, in church! They are dressed in accordance with the modesty standards of the time, but breasts were not included in that because they had not yet been sexualized because formula hadn’t been invented yet.

I would cut of a Puritan church congregation. There are two women breastfeeding their babies with no cover. A man sits in between them, totally unperturbed.

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

I didn’t do that on purpose.

It’s not that I don’t fund boob jokes funny. It’s the fact that the reason we find boob jokes funny is that our culture views breasts primarily as sexual objects, not as their way cooler evolved purpose: to build humans from scratch.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Why is nobody wearing masks in these photos? We are entering COVID and flu season. Do these conferences do any testing?

A bunch of scientists, talking and smiling, including a large group photo. Nobody is wearing masks.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

“Delivering the right message”—about, what, exactly, if not mitigation measures??

"Pandemic preparedness is not just about PPE, vaccines, mass testing centres, and surveillance - it's about clarity, credibility, and connection.
Because in a crisis, the right message, delivered the right way, can be as powerful as any medicine."
"Pandemic Preparedness isn't just about stockpiling PPE - it's about stockpiling trust. We can't wait for a crisis to start speaking clearly. The time to build trust is before the first case. The most powerful message is not the loudest - it's the one that's heard, understood, and trusted."

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

The coolest part is when I talk to moms about evolution and it helps them understand their babies a little better 🥰

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Read the rest of my thread. A good chunk of my work is oriented around teaching those skills. The point of the article is that it doesn’t matter how much you promote your work if journalists don’t think you’re credible or that your work is important.

nature of the skew. Women-led papers were more likely to be featured in local outlets than in national, international, or science-specialty media. They appeared more often in liberal-leaning outlets than conservative ones. And coverage of their work carried a more negative tone. "When women's research is politicized or framed negatively, it risks eroding the perceived credibility of women scientists," Sugimoto says.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

If you’re a #HumanMilk / #breastfeeding researcher/clinician and you want to bust through the media noise and bias towards “women’s issues,” we’ve got you:

bsky.app/profile/brid...

🧪 🩺 🛟 #SciComm #MedEd #MCH #MaternalChildHealth #ChildHealth #DOHaD #OBSky #PedSky #pediatrician

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 7d

☝🏼 "But what about moms who CAN'T breastfeed?"
🤔 “This economist says #breastfeeding doesn’t matter.”
📱 "I read that BFHI starves babies..."

Talking about #LactSci🤱🏽🔬 ain't easy! Our #HMI26 workshop will teach you to share #lactation research with empathy AND accuracy.

📍UC San Diego

Info & link👇🏼

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Click here↓ for a good time:

👉🏼 👉🏼 👉🏼 ✨ #LactFacts ✨👈🏼 👈🏼 👈🏼

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Why yes, I do have a #LactSci starter pack!

🔗 go.bsky.app/LC9nPQG

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 1d

Media bias against women doesn’t just hurt female scientists’ careers; it also biases the information that gets the the public.

For example, my field, lactation science, is likely a thing you just now learned exists.

www.science.org/content/arti...

🧪 🛟 🩺 #BlueSci #MedSky #WomenInSci #SciMoms

When women researchers publish, media attention doesn’t always follow

Men-led papers receive more media coverage than women’s, new study finds

www.science.org

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

🧪🛟🩺 #MedSky #BlueSci #PublicHealth #EpiSky

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

“This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

“You can make this stop at any time. Just pass the funding bill.”

They’re using scientists as their whipping boy.

Anything to avoid releasing the #EpsteinFiles.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

This. No one cares if circumcision causes autism. They care because it’s fucking barbaric.

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

Nevermind I will NEVER work with a cowbird apologist!! 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

a woman in a black dress is making a funny face with her fingers

Alt: a woman in a black dress is making a cross her fingers pile people do in vampire movies

media.tenor.com

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

It’s in the alt text!

Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

This person is really funny and seems really nice, and is looking for a job but my lab studies lactation which has nothing to do with birds so here’s a controversial ornithology meme to drive engagement

🧪

The “change my mind“ meme with the guy sitting at a folding table with a sign. the sign says:

HOSP equals rats with wings

change my mind

“HOSP” is an abbreviation for the house sparrow, which in the United States is an invasive species that drives out bluebirds and other vulnerable secondary nesters. They have serrated beaks that they use to behead baby bluebirds. They’re real assholes.

All of that is not in the photo. I just thought you should know it.

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Reposted by Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · Oct 12

Tired of photos of the mid-latitude aurora on October 10-11? If so, avoid this thread because I finally got a full night's sleep and got my photos onto my computer so I'm sharing them along with my recollections (as an amateur photographer who's never shot space sky before)

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pink and yellow diffuse aurora under the milky way and above some silhouetted grass

pinkish red aurora forming a distinct line above the bright moon, itself above a dark treeline

dark trees with green behind them showing through and red above

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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 3d

How do you feel about

1. Canadians
2. Lactation
3. Aggressively non-toxic work environments with a pathological dedication to work-life balance

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