How Should We Defend Breastfeeding?
"A question for the culture"
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Greetings from a little Spring (Burn Out) break! We spent last weekend at Coachella handing out pamphlets about the dangers of hormonal birth control to all the young ladies in their assless chaps and flower crowns.
I am, of course, JKing. Andrea spent the last week huddling up with a group of women who are launching their own breastfeeding advocacy accounts, as our on going campaign to spread the glory of lactivism across the globe (while crushing our enemies and rejoicing to the sounds of their pleads for mercy) continues!
Demand Congress Spend (at Least) $20 Million on Breastfeeding Programs
We also made a plea to those fat cats up on Capitol Hill to spend more money on federally funded breastfeeding programs. Currently, the federal government spends $1.5 BILLION DOLLARS ON FORMULA and only has $9 million dollars earmarked for CDC breastfeeding programs. We joined the breastfeeding coalitions around the country to demand that congress invest at least $20 million on breastfeeding for fiscal year 2024. Just to help you understand how modest $20 million dollars actually is, here is a visual aid.
👉👉You can contact your own representative by just clicking here! It’s easy and it’s necessary- ESPECIALLY if you live in Ohio or Oregon! If you take a look over the organizational sign-on letter, those two states are severely underrepresented. 👈 👈
Bobbie’s Lawyers Slap Breastfeeding Account with Legal Threat
Report from the frontline: Bobbie sent a cease and desist letter to popular breastfeeding account, Moomy’s Milk, for broadly critiquing formula. Their post listed all the adverse effects formula has been is linked to— an increased rate of gastrointestinal distress, eczema, and even SIDS — alongside a picture of a Bobbie formula can. Bobbie claimed the post’s language was “disparaging” and “confusing to consumers.”
Of course, the IRRRONNYYY is that Bobbie’s whole marketing ploy is to disparage and confuse ‘consumers’ (ie MOTHERS) about breastfeeding!
But here’s the good news: this tells us that Bobbi is paying attention, they are reading what YOU are saying about them, and they don’t like being criticized on Instagram. In other words, oops! we found a soft spot. So what should we do about it?
In England, where the breastfeeding plummets down to LESS THAN 1 PERCENT after 6 months postpartum, pipe-hitting, hard knocking, mother sucking lactivists are known to do breastfeeding flash mobs at any local establishment where women are shamed for nursing in public.
In Argentina, there was a mass protest after a woman breastfeeding her nine-month son was kicked out from a public square by two policewomen.
On the home front, in Maryland at the airport where a Delta flight attendant had a nursing mother removed from the plane before take off because she refused to cover up with a blanket.
In Boston where a mother was kicked out of Victoria’s Secret (!!!!) for breastfeeding!
More recently, the breast pump company Elvie launched a giant boob balloon into the sky to support breastfeeding moms, which is cool.(?) But this battle can’t be between companies who all have a financial stake in wether women breastfeed or not. It needs to be in the hands of mothers whose children all deserve the best possible start in life and should not have their fears and anxieties exploited by corporations for profit.
So question for the culture: if Bobbie is the future of formula and their entire marketing model is based on using social media to devalue and denigrate breastfeeding, what should we do to defend it? What are you willing to do?
From Oregon here, and contacted my state reps with the link! THANK YOU!! 🫡🤍