Kimberly Williams with her two-week-old, Kaleb. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography
PREPARING BEFORE BIRTH:
Preparing for Breastfeeding Before Birth
Tag: formula
How Those “Breast Milk Junk Food” Ads Could Be Better
Brazil’s Paediatric Society of Rio Grande do Sul (SPRS) targets breastfeeding moms in a new ad campaign that warns how a diet that includes processed foods can harm their nurslings. While not the first offensive-for-shock-value ad of its kind (read my other post on “The 7 Grossest Breastfeeding Ads“), it has recently provoked much confusion, defensiveness, and resistance from breastfeeding women.
Not surprising, as we’re all pretty sensitive… hormonal… sometimes already feeling like slovenly, frumpy new moms, even without the help of ads that highlight our so judge-worthy maternal insufficiencies…
And us breastfeeders like to eat (everything, as many of us will testify on the book).
I Can’t Understand Black Breastfeeding Week (But I Still Support It)
There are many things I didn’t get about the history of Black Breastfeeding Week, which runs from August 25th-31st. To my credit, I can barely keep up with the history of breastfeeding in general (I mean, the practice does date all the way back to the beginning of mammal-kind).
Prior to looking into the celebration that is Black Breastfeeding Week, I already knew why White Breastfeeding Week doesn’t exist: because all of National Breastfeeding Month is about support and understanding for every last breastfeeding person, and whites aren’t a minority or marginalized group.
Note: Before I continue, please be aware I’m no expert in racial discrimination and though I try my best to overcome my own ignorance at any opportunity, I’m a work in progress here. So I ask for gentleness if I’ve unknowingly represented cultural inaccuracies; my heart is in the right place. ❤ 🙂
If You Never See Breastfeeding…
If you never see breastfeeding, you’re missing awareness of a few things, or a true understanding of the whole thing — just like I was before I eventually saw it.
This way of child nurturing is so natural it can easily blend in with everything else we attend to in our domestic, professional, and social lives. But blending in is not equal to disappearing.
If you never see it, you may not know it’s how many women learn to become mothers. You may not know it’s how they continue to learn about who they are as mothers. So we must make a point to not let the image and act of breastfeeding disappear.
60 Second Reaction to the “Dear Breastfeeding Moms” Article
A few quick notes in response to this article, “Dear breastfeeding moms, Is it really that hard to cover up?” Read More
Keep Infant Formula Ads Out of Hospitals — But Why? But How?
What is The WHO Code?
Check out these links:
– The WHO Code
– The CDC on the WHO Code
– Forms for reporting violations Monitoring the Code
– Conflict of interest & sponsorship
– Marketing to night nurses in the hospital
– Night Nurse and other programs for Health Care Providers, sponsored by formula
List of Various Formula Recalls
Surpermarket in Guilderland, NY, via masslive.com
This is in no way a complete list. Why? Because the FDA doesn’t keep a permanent record of recalls, so they often disappear without trace after a short period of time. Still, from this brief list (if you consider it brief, comparatively at least), you’ll notice a pattern: it’s the same companies that have recalls….over and over and over and over again.
This is not a formula-bashing post. These are the facts, however, and anyone who’s responsible for feeding infants may find it useful to be aware of this. If you use formula, you might consider spending your money on a company that generates product for a smaller part of the market (Nestle, Mead Johnson, and Abbott are the major companies that account for a whopping 90% of U.S. formulas).
Without further ado, let’s get to know these companies’ track records.
Mama's Milk, No Chaser 