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Dr. Sahira Long is a community pediatrician and board certified lactation consultant. She has been president of the DC Breastfeeding Coalition since its inception in 2004. She lives in Maryland with her husband and 2 sons.
Sahira Long, MD, FAAP, IBCLC
Dr. Sahira Long is a community pediatrician and board certified lactation consultant. She has been president of the DC Breastfeeding Coalition since its inception in 2004. She lives in Maryland with her husband and 2 sons.
Blog Post List
February 12, 2015
I still remember the first time I heard about ROSE. I was attending a United States Breastfeeding Committee meeting and several people asked me if I had received a call from Kim Bugg about getting involved with ROSE. At the time, I had no idea who Kim Bugg was and the only roses I’d heard of were a coworker, a distant relative and a flower. When I heard that an organization called ROSE was forming, I must admit that my interest was piqued when I heard that the name was an acronym for Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere and that the group was dedicated to addressing racial inequities in...
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March 27, 2014
As I sat listening to Angie share the story of her birthing experience, I was saddened to realize how similar it was to my own, even though the hospitals were almost 1500 miles apart. As she described how she sent her son to the nursery to allow herself to get some rest, I wondered if anyone provided any information to Angie prenatally about the benefits of rooming-in since she was planning to breastfeed. I clearly recall that no one on the health care team mentioned those benefits to me during either of my pregnancies. I reasoned that they treated me differently than they would a patient who...
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March 4, 2013
In August 2012, US Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that insurance companies would be required to cover lactation services as part of a provision of the Affordable Care Act that breastfeeding advocates nationwide applauded. While there are kinks still being worked out of the provision, the result would be countless women would have access to a breastfeeding specialist and more likely to reach their personal breastfeeding goals. Breastfeeding duration rates in states across the nation would be brought closer to the Healthy People 2020 goals ...
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February 26, 2013
As I read the recent MMWR from CDC, I was encouraged to see that we are making progress in increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration as a nation. I was even more delighted to see that, while African American women continue to have the lowest breastfeeding rates among all ethnicities, the gap is decreasing. Sure there is more work to be done, but this Black History Month I want to celebrate the work that is already taking place. Working as a pediatrician in a low-income African American community where breastfeeding has not become the norm, I applaud the “she-roes” I come across who...
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February 23, 2012
Recently MedStar Georgetown University Hospital became the first maternity facility in the nation’s capital (in fact the entire Washington Metropolitan area) to achieve elite designation as a Baby Friendly Hospital . As president of the D.C. Breastfeeding Coalition, I applaud this achievement. I personally witnessed the tremendous work and dedication it took for all involved including the hospital’s executive leadership, the lactation services department and the entire maternal and child healthcare team to achieve this honor. I'm conflicted, however, because I work on the other side of the...
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August 3, 2011
As a physician, I have had many opportunities to see how important the support I provide is to mothers' feeding decision. I deal with many women for whom public nursing is difficult because of the disapproving looks and comments they receive. From letting them know of their rights to breastfeed anywhere, to sharing some of my own experiences nursing my children in public, to showing them ways they can nurse discretely while in the waiting room or any public place, I have worked to help these mothers overcome barriers to breastfeeding. It was heart-warming to hear of a mom who remembered a...
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July 13, 2011
Recently, it came to light that a number of female Washington, DC police officers have faced work conditions that make it difficult for them to continue nursing their children after returning from maternity leave. One of the women, Officer Sashay Brown, came forward to share her experience. After returning to work two months after giving birth, Officer Brown made a formal request to work in the police station, not the street, because wearing her bullet-proof vest was restrictive and began to affect her breast milk supply. The police department initally appeared to grant her request, but later...
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February 24, 2011
As a pediatrician, mother, and an African American woman, I celebrated as both First Lady Michelle Obama and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin recently lent their voices to encourage strong support for breastfeeding. It’s inspiring to have prominent, influential African American women issuing a call to action to support breastfeeding. African American women, in particular, need support and encouragement to initiate and continue breastfeeding for both their baby and themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control , African American women initiated breastfeeding at much lower rates than...
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