Ruth A. Lawrence,MD: Pass It Forward

As a community of health professionals, researchers, public health policymakers, toxicologists, mother–baby breastfeeding dyads, and community breastfeeding support groups are blessed to have 75+ years of guidance and leadership from Ruth A. Lawrence, MD. I personally have known her for over 50 years as a colleague, friend, a “second mother,” and, most importantly, as an academic mentor. I know that the breastfeeding community shares my love, respect, and admiration for her.

My association with Ruth started in my youth when I was a tagalong child and student with my parents, Michael and Niles Newton, early pioneers in breastfeeding medicine and researchers. Their interest in oxytocin and the “let-down reflex” and oxytocin as the hormone of love and bonding created a group of like-minded professionals, including my parents and Ruth Lawrence. As such, my interests and experience grew with my advancing education through many conferences where Ruth and my parents were speakers. An example was the early Annual Physicians Conferences sponsored by La Leche League International, Inc. In my Ob/Gyn residency and Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) fellowship, I was noted for and was happy to share my breastfeeding knowledge with medical students, residents, MFM fellows, and the breastfeeding community through invited lectures. Ruth was a role model for my didactic lectures, sometimes providing me with direct input on my performance.

In 1985, a sentinel event occurred in my career trajectory. I read cover to cover the first edition of Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Profession by Ruth Lawrence. This, the first textbook on breastfeeding medicine written by a physician, resonated with me and many other physicians with its familiar, clear, efficient style using science and extensive literature support. I modeled it often in my burgeoning scholarly output in chapters in several editions of an obstetric textbook and editorships of symposia on breastfeeding and lactation.

During this period, I had an active clinical practice which often involved counseling patients and physicians concerning exposures to medications during pregnancy and, increasingly, during lactation. One of Ruth’s many gifts was to identify early the need for public and physician access to a national database on drug and chemical exposures during pregnancy and lactation. She developed one of the first national databases on drugs during lactation at the Breastfeeding and Human Lactation Center at the University of Rochester. Many physicians, including myself, accessed the database to provide up-to-date information on medication exposures. The success of this resource has allowed me to connect with another giant in lactation pharmacology, Thomas W. Hale, PhD. I was honored to be a coauthor with him on a chapter in a symposium on breastfeeding. As a good mentor, Ruth Lawrence introduced me to many bright and productive colleagues in breastfeeding medicine.

Another important event in my life as a colleague of Ruth Lawerence was an invitation in 1996 for me to join her in a multidisciplinary group of founding members of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM). Through my exposure to this new elite group of medical professionals, my learning and mentorship improved. In my leadership roles in the ABM and my subsequent role as an Associate Editor of Breastfeeding Medicine, I had much face-to-face contact with Ruth’s passion, focus, and leadership to have physicians as the leaders in breastfeeding medicine. As a leader in the international medical community represented by the ABM, Ruth mentored me, and I learned the nuances of successful negotiation in an international medical organization.

In summary, what does it mean to “pass it forward” if Ruth Lawrence is your lifetime mentor? To me it means to teach your students and colleagues to have a persistent passion and international vision, be lifelong learners, be critical thinkers and listeners, to push and support their students in their new ideas, to introduce them to experts with like-minded interests and passions, to think as a team member using all disciplines, to encourage and develop their access for all communities, not just those medical. As Ruth Lawrence demonstrated, one must live a life guided by moral and ethical principles.

Thank you, my teacher. I hope that in my career I have been as successful as you with my students and colleagues at “passing it forward” as you have done with me.