When it comes to breastfeeding, Allyson Felix wants moms to know you can’t do it alone
Allyson Felix continues to make Olympic history, even when she’s not competing. The celebrated track and field athlete, entrepreneur and mother of two retired in 2022 after winning a record 20 World Championship medals and 11 medals at the Olympic Games. But Felix has now set her sights on supporting mothers in the world of professional sports: She’ll be traveling to Paris for the 2024 Olympics this week—with her kids in tow—as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission. There, she’ll launch the first nursery in the Olympic Village, in partnership with Pampers.
As a mom herself, Felix knows firsthand how difficult it can be to manage motherhood with a grueling competition schedule, and wanted to give athlete parents a dedicated space to breastfeed and bond with their children, offering a sense of normalcy and calm amidst the stress and strict schedules of the Olympic Games.
Creating this space was at the top of her list when she joined the IOC, Felix said at an intimate conversation hosted by Sarah Kellogg Neff of The Lactation Network at Peoplehood in New York City last week, but it’s just the beginning of what she hopes to accomplish. Felix said she has “a whole list of ideas” around changes she wants to make at future Olympic Games, including continuing to expand the nursery and “normalizing childcare at sporting events for professional athletes” down the line.
After all, women shouldn’t have to choose between being a mom and being an athlete, but for many, especially when competing at a high level, it’s often seen as a trade-off: Felix described pregnancy as “the kiss of death” for pro athletes. “I don’t want any other woman to feel like she has to choose between her profession and motherhood, and definitely not to have to hide bringing a new life into this world,” Felix shared, explaining that when she was pregnant with her daughter five years ago, she would train at 4 a.m. to hide her pregnancy, fearing that she’d lose her sponsorship deals.
Felix also said she felt the need to wait to have kids until later in her career so as not to compromise her professional goals. Unfortunately, that’s a choice that many women are forced to make, no matter their profession. “I waited to have kids for a long time because of what I saw my teammates and colleagues go through—they were not supported through their pregnancies,” she recalled.
Find your team
Now, as a mother, she’s hoping to change that, serving as an outspoken advocate for those on similar journeys. Her best advice? Recognizing that you can’t do it alone—that you need to find your team. In all aspects of her life—motherhood, sports and entrepreneurship—Felix champions the impact of assembling and leaning on a team, noting that none of her successes would be possible without the help of others.
The concept stems from her experience in pro sports, but has far-reaching possibilities. “I’ve always been part of a team, but not in this way, and it’s been great,” she said, referring to both motherhood and launching her sneaker line, Saysh. “Everyone has their own areas of expertise, and I wanted to bring in the best in every category. And then just be collaborative. You know, I’ve spent so much time just really focused on one thing and it’s been great to say, ‘OK, I don’t know what I’m doing in this particular space.’ It’s so much learning, you know.”
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Being an athlete certainly helped Felix build resilience and overcome challenges, but her competitive nature and rigorous training conditioned her to be obsessive about meeting goals, and when it came to her breastfeeding journey, she said she had to accept this was one thing she couldn’t accomplish on her own.
Felix leaned on a lactation consultant during her breastfeeding journey with her first—making up part of her care team, which also included MDs and a doula.
“It’s filling in the gap where you just don’t have support,” said Leah Tribus, IBCLC, RN, The Lactation Network’s Director of Clinical and Strategic Partnerships, at the event. “Otherwise, you have Google, and maybe friends and family if you’re lucky. But so many people don’t necessarily have that support network—and so having an IBCLC can just make the experience a little less stressful.”
“Be open and flexible on the journey,” Felix adds. “The health of your baby is more important than self-imposed rules and restrictions.”
Related: Black moms are dying in childbirth. Why aren’t we talking about the reasons behind this crisis?
Raising awareness about Black maternal health
Felix also spoke candidly about her own traumatic birth experience in her first pregnancy, sharing how she needed an emergency C-section due to complications with preeclampsia. Her daughter was born two months early, spending a month in the NICU. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity, and is responsible for over 70,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 fetal deaths worldwide, the CDC states. In the US, the rate of preeclampsia in Black women is 60% higher than in white women. A staggering 84% of pregnancy-related deaths in the US are considered preventable.
Thanks to her advocacy around Black maternal health, a friend of Felix’s reached out to her personally when she needed advice on her own postpartum health.
“She was having headaches, and she said she reached out to her doctor, and they told her to wait for her six-week appointment,” Felix said. “This is still happening, every single day. I told her to go to the emergency room, and she was diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia. It’s infuriating, but also, she knew to call me, just because of conversations that are happening. She didn’t know exactly what to look for, but she knew that she was at risk,” Felix shares, adding that we’re making strides and taking steps, but there’s still such a long way to go. Just another reason why leaning on your team is so important.
Having recently been awarded a grant from the Melinda Gates Foundation for her work on Black maternal health, Felix is fired up to continue raising awareness and supporting better birth outcomes for Black women.
Felix takes a positive view of the future, while noting that there’s still more work to be done. But she’s in it for the long haul. “My advocacy work around Black maternal health will continue because every woman of color deserves to have the full experience of joy in birth, instead of the fear we are accustomed to,” she said, noting that her grant will be used to directly support communities in need. Step by step, she’s working to make the road easier.
