Welcome to The Leaky Boob
Your trusted companion on the journey of nurturing and nourishing your little one.
We understand that feeding your child is a unique experience for every family, filled with joys and challenges alike. Our mission is to provide you with evidence-based information, practical advice, and a supportive community to empower you in your infant feeding journey.
The Leaky Boob has supported thousands in their baby feeding and parenting journeys with invaluable insights and practical knowledge that is down-to-earth shared through personal stories.
Down-to-earth, judgment-free, information forward, The Leaky Boob is a safe and maybe a little irreverent space to let it all hang out about infant feeding and parenting.
Whether you are preparing to get started in your own baby feeding journey, are experienced already, are wrapping up, or done completely, there is space for you here.
Find up to date information and recommendations from reliable resources as you prepare and get started feeding your new little one or trouble shoot specific challenges, or just connect with others in sharing the stories that weave the fabric of community support.
What is The Leaky Boob?
Hey, you found The Leaky Boob!
We’re glad you’re here – even if you made it here by accident, in which case please stick around! You might learn something but even if not, you stand a pretty good chance of having a good time (and learning something, whether you want to or not).
While you likely didn’t end up here to read our about page, “they” said we needed one and since “they” made some pretty sound arguments about that, here it is. Besides, it is always a good idea to know about where you’re getting your information. Verifying your sources is just smart. (Which is why it is good to be careful about listening to what “they” say about feeding your baby- verify, verify, verify!)
What is The Leaky Boob?
Down-to-earth, judgment-free, information forward, The Leaky Boob is a safe and maybe a little irreverent space to let it all hang out about infant feeding and parenting and sometimes other adjacent topics such as pregnancy, birth, family, relationships, and sometimes even sex (maybe more often than some of you are getting around to that in real life). However you feed or plan on feeding your baby, TLB is here to let you know that you’re not alone and to cheer you on as you do what is surely considered one of the most natural things in the world: feeding your baby.
TLB (what we call it for short) is the down-to-earth companion for every parent feeding a baby and trying to survive parenting, and for any one who knows someone in that situation or might themselves be there at some point. With an emphasis on lactation, The Leaky Boob is an honest story-driven, solution-focused, practical resource with evidence-based information that normalizes a wide range of infant feeding experiences and helps those caring for and feeding babies feel seen, understood, and supported. TLB prioritizes providing accessible, relatable information sharing that is backed by reputable and verified scientific research such as the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Protocols, Journal of Human Lactation, International Breastfeeding Journal, Clinical Lactation, The Lancet, and expert lactation specialists and clinicians, and more. We read those so you don’t have to and put that info in plain-language mixed with experience and humor. Feeding our babies is natural, finding the information and resources to support feeding our babies often isn’t.
Of course, natural doesn’t mean easy, which is why TLB exists.
Founded by parenting educator and coach, birth worker, Jessica Martin-Weber in April 2010, The Leaky Boob came to be 3 months after the birth of her 5th child. Because obviously she needed something else to manage and care for. Following months of feeding difficulties, including jaundice and exploring how to care for her baby with 2 holes in her heart, having to pump every 2 hours to make up for her baby’s low energy at the breast and to be able to bio-engineer breastmilk to elevate the fat content for her baby (yeah, it’s a thing, and it’s really cool), feeling alone and recognizing how little the world was talking about the baby feeding as if it was a shameful thing to be hidden away, Jessica decided to write a post about it and published it on her family blog that as far as she knew, only her mom read. Satisfied to have gotten some frustration off her chest, she went to bed. The next day she was shocked to discover that her post had gone viral on social media and she had messages asking for more content and sharing their own stories.
The rest, as they say, is history.
From that humble beginning, The Leaky Boob grew into a large online support community and trusted source of information that has supported hundreds of thousands of women and families. We’ve won grants, participated in United States Breastfeeding Committee summits, joined MIT’s Pump-A-Thon providing in real-time market research for engineers and problem solvers, hosted conferences and summits, and traveled the world speaking and connecting over the shared experiences of feeding, parenting, and loving our babies.
About the Founder
Bringing together an eclectic background in the arts, education, and supporting women in birth and sharing her journey as a mom, Jessica Martin-Weber started The Leaky Boob in 2010. The Leaky Boob quickly grew to be a globally recognized community of support for parents and the people that support them.
Jessica is a CAPPA trained lactation educator, retired birth worker, relationship coach, and teacher. She lives with her children and husband in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and loves knitting, learning, fresh ground coffee, and info dumping. Since starting TLB in 2010, Jessica has dedicated herself to sharing accurate information and the real-life funny stories and experiences of baby feeding and parenting, helping others to connect with their own journey to know they matter. Along the way, Jessica has consulted for the US Breastfeeding Committee and has spoken at or been invited to every USBC breastfeeding symposium for World Breastfeeding Week, served on the Affordable Care Act’s United States Breastfeeding Committee for the continuity of care initiative, led by Michelle Obama, has contributed a forward for Kathleen Huggins’ groundbreaking book “The Nursing Mother’s Companion,” been quoted and cited in other works, and had her work through The Leaky Boob studied by maternal health researchers. She has judged, awarded scholarships, and run real-time market research for MIT’s “Hack My Pump-a-thon.” Her work has been featured in media from The New York Times to HuffPost to Yahoo News and she has given interviews to Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, and other media outlets.
Your story matters and sharing it can make a difference for others. If you have a baby or toddler feeding story to tell or anything adjacent such as pregnancy or parenting that you’d like to share, please use this form to let us know about it and we’ll follow up via email. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Support The Leaky Boob
The Leaky Boob aims to freely provide information, community, and support for the baby feeding and parenting journey. It is an honor to be a part of your support circle. You can give back and pay it forward by being a part of our support circle as well. Visit our shop or join our Patreon to participate in helping The Leaky Boob be able to afford to continue.
A Letter From The Leaky Boob Founder
Hi! I’m Jessica Martin-Weber, founder and creator of The Leaky Boob, and mom of 9 boob ticks (read: wonderful bundles of joy). I can tell you from personal experience that feeding babies is sometimes a rainbow-farting unicorns and magical fairies in a feel-good Hallmark movie put-it-in-your-digital-picture-album and judge everyone who has a hard time kind of way. AND it can also be some of the most frustrating and physically draining and depressing and mental health f**kery I’ve ever experienced. It turns out that, as much as feeding our babies is a natural thing, the mechanics alone of pouring food into our babies’ cute little mouths isn’t always as straightforward as one might think, let alone your own physical, mental and emotional challenges that so often accompany the baby feeding journey.
If you find it to just all be a lot, you’re in good company. Many of us do.
When I was expecting my first baby I read everything I could get my hands on and found it all… really weird. Then I turned to textbooks and that was more informative but incredibly overwhelming.
I wasn’t sure I could do this whole breastfeeding thing.
Or maybe even parenting at all.
Then I did. Well, sorta.
Then I did it again. And again. And again… I mean, I have 9 kids so I did it again 8 times. I’m still doing it.
I have learned a lot and learned how I wish I had been prepared and how information was shared with me. Learned what I wish I had known and what I wish I had done differently. Learned what I really needed.
Which was really not anything that was in those books I read at first. Because what would have really made a difference was down-to-earth, honest, practical, information and strategies mixed with a lot of real-life stories. Less diagrams and serene depictions and more about smelling like onions (I don’t even eat onions), milk stains from milk dripping through your favorite top, and boob-filled-baby-grins between crying in the shower sessions.
The first time I remember seeing a woman breastfeeding a baby, I was 14 years old. Though my own mother breastfed my younger sister, since we’re only 22 months a part, I had no memory of seeing breastfeeding until my mom’s friend had a new baby and nursed him openly. Back then I was weirded out and judged the mom for not covering up or not going someplace else to feed him. Boob juice was fine for babies, I knew it was “best” for them but it seemed somehow gross to witness.
The next time I saw open nursing was when I breastfed my own baby. Listen, I owe my mom’s friend an apology and I knew it right away.
Feeding my baby was one of the most befuddling and lonely times of my life. I wished I had seen this “best for baby” parenting requirement so much more because I knew I had no clue what I was doing. Those textbooks weren’t all that great of company. I felt isolated, as if I was doing something that shouldn’t be witnessed, and terrified that I was feeding my baby wrong and there was no bell curve, just pass/fail.
I just wanted to see that mom whip her boob out and feed her baby so I could see if I was doing it right.
The realization that breastfeeding should be visible in our society is part of what led me to start the Leaky Boob, a global resource for lactation and parenting support. That and a dumpster fire of a situation where an Applebee’s manager put a nasty bar rag over a woman’s breast and the baby attached because some customers complained that a baby was, wait for it, being fed in a restaurant. That’s another story for another time. What I came to understand is that when breastfeeding is visible, the need for support can be better understood. When breastfeeding is seen as a normal part of life, the necessity of accommodations is clear. When breastfeeding is demonstrated, we can better comprehend its importance in the lives of those feeding babies. When that happens, parents are equipped to care for their children in a way that builds lasting confidence in their own competency through community.
That’s why I continue to run The Leaky Boob.
As the founder of The Leaky Boob, a Lactation Educator, Parenting Educator, Parenting and Relationship Coach, and mom of 9. I’m so glad you are here. Settle in, get comfortable, look around. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Be sure you sign up for our emails so you don’t miss new posts, announcements, research opportunities, sales, giveaways, and updates. If you have a baby feeding story to share, I’d love to connect with you and hear about it, please fill out this form to get started.
Joy and warmth to you and yours!
Cheers,
Jessica
