Maternal and Infant
Assessment for
Breastfeeding and
Human Lactation

Lois D.W. Arnold, PhD, MPH, CLC, IBCLC has been involved in donor human milk
banking since 1978, when she became a donor—an event she describes as “life
changing.” She changed careers and became the assistant administrator for Hawaii
Mothers’ Milk, Inc. During this time she helped to found the Human Milk Banking
Association of North America, Inc., and was one of the inaugural candidates for the

IBCLC exam, becoming certified in 1985. She was the executive director of the Hu-
man Milk Banking Association of North America for nine years and is now the CEO

of the National Commission on Donor Milk Banking, a focus of the Academy of Lac-
tation Policy and Practice. She has published numerous articles in the field and has

been a member of the International People to People Breastfeeding and Human Lac-
tation delegations to China, Cuba, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Russia, and Romania,

where she examined donor milk-banking practices and policies. She is known as the
“mother of milk banks” in China. She represents donor milk banking on the United

States Breastfeeding Committee and is the current chair of the Membership Com-
mittee. Lois also has had a private lactation consulting practice and joined the fac-
ulty of the Healthy Children Project, Inc. in 1994, where she has been a co-author

of several books, including Reclaiming Breastfeeding for the United States and The
Curriculum to Support the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.