Bintou Diarra
Medicine, maternal health initiatives, advocacy, and community-centered programs.
Welcome!
Bintou Diarra is an writer, doula, and fourth year medical student at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School with a research interest and background in maternal health. During her undergraduate career at Brown University, she majored in medical anthropology, led the Ivy League’s premier collective of trained doulas and birth advocates, and wrote and published editorial pieces on bioethical issues to major platforms.
Her writing has been featured in the selected reviews of multi-award winning films such as Birthing Justice, and on the resumes of bestselling authors Allison Yarrow and Anthony Abraham Jack, and published journal articles from figures such as the Associate Director of Brown University's School of Public Health. Among her past clientele are leading health organization Mama Glow, impact and advocacy arm Bobbie for Change, the Kate Spade New York Foundation, and leading infant feeding brand MomCozy.
Her work with organizations have earned them numerous prestigious awards, such as the Anthem Award and Fast Company's World-Changing Ideas Award, and opportunities on national platforms like the South by Southwest Stage.
Bylines:
My Academic Scholar Project (ASP) examines first food justice as a framework for understanding the United States' infant feeding landscape. Building on my prior work in lactation and birthwork education, the project evaluates the entanglement of structural racism and historical inequity with families' understanding of their feeding choices,
Rather than analyzing disparities in breastfeeding as matters of individual knowledge or preference, the project calls for medical learners to consider the overarching conditions under which families make feeding decisions. To this end, the project covers the historical legacies of chattel slavery, predatory and inequitable formula marketing, and barriers to lactation support to bring clinician-trainees to conceive of our role in providing informed lactation counseling that accounts for patients' realities.
The final project will translate this research into a digital educational booklet, accompanying lecture materials, and a facilitator guide designed for integration into medical education. Together, these resources will introduce medical students to first food justice while offering a practical framework for discussing lactation and infant feeding with structural competency and respect for patient autonomy.