08/01/2021
Happy World Breastfeeding Week, everybody. What we do to families in the USA is shameful.
I was falling asleep last night and thinking about how I wasn’t going to do a post or anything special for World Breastfeeding Week. Because honestly, if all of us lactation professionals do our job well we won’t NEED to have a World Breastfeeding Week anymore. We don’t have a World Drink When You’re Thirsty Day or a World Close Your Eyes When You’re Asleep month.
Breastfeeding or chestfeeding should just be a thing, a normal thing, a thing that is done to feed a baby. It should be so commonplace that nobody really thinks twice about it. Lactation shouldn’t need holidays and cheerleading squads and if I‘m totally honest, lactation shouldn’t need so many certifications and professionals. It should just be a normal part of life. You have a baby? You feed it, and you feed it a food that is appropriate for a baby to eat.
As I tell my families all the time “I don’t care what you feed your baby as long as it isn’t Mountain Dew. Human milk, formula, I will help you no matter how you want this to go.” I am a lactation consultant who works with tons of families whose babies are eating formula, and often I work with families whose babies are EXCLUSIVELY eating formula and are having trouble with bottle feeding. I’m not a breast-or-nothing kinda gal. I’m not that kind of lactation consultant. So I wasn’t gonna say anything about World Breastfeeding Week.
But then I woke up this morning and scrolled through Facebook and saw the full-page ad that a new-ish formula company put in the New York Times today. On the first day of World Breastfeeding Week. It wasn’t a coincidence, they say in their press release that they intentionally planned it for this week.
The headline is “How is b̵r̵e̵a̵s̵t̵feeding going?” because when you really want to bridge a divide and include everyone, the absolute best way to do that is to put a strikethrough in your headline. Why not use “How is feeding going?” instead which is, in theory, the whole point of their campaign and actually the URL they are touting?
You don’t include people by striking out part of the conversation.
I am not naming their brand and I scribbled out their logo because they knew well and good that people would be upset about this ad being placed today. And you know what that means right? Free advertising for them as people on the internet talk about their brand. All publicity is good publicity.
I’ll be honest, I can’t read the rest of the ad because I don’t have it on paper and I can’t zoom in enough. I can read their press release- which is loudly preaching the topic of inclusion- and which goes in depth into why they are doing this during World Breastfeeding Week. You can go ahead and read it if their copy interests you, do a quick Google and you’ll very easily find it.
But make no mistake about it. This is not about inclusion. This is marketing. This is ALL marketing. From what I can tell a NYT full-page color ad in the Sunday edition is around $150,000. If they REALLY were interested in inclusion and changing the conversation then their brand name wouldn’t be plastered all over the ad. THIS IS ALL MARKETING TO SELL YOU THEIR PRODUCT.
This is what we do to parents all day every day, for every single product and method and program and diaper and dish detergent and sleep training system and, and, and. You are not being included, you are not being supported.
You are being sold to.
And thus, we are back to the beginning. This is why we have World Breastfeeding Week. Because lactation doesn’t have a marketing department, an advertising budget, a slick team of copywriters and photographers and salespeople. We have people like me who sit in our little corner of the world and say “hey folks, if you want to breastfeed or chestfeed or bodyfeed your baby or you want to feed your baby human milk, I want to help you do that.” Yes, I charge money for my time and expertise and services, because I have to feed my kids too. So I guess you could say I’m part of the problem and that’s valid. But I don’t have $150,000 to run an ad… hell, I don’t have an advertising budget period. I just have me, and my mouth talking to parents, and my fingers writing blog posts and Facebook posts and Instagram posts when I have time.
So… happy World Breastfeeding Week, everyone. I’ll be over here spending it like I spend every other week of the year… helping families to feed their babies. I’m here if you need me.
