Very Exciting and Empowering Breastfeeding Video Module
by Jensine | December 6, 2007 at 11:46 PM
The other day I was visiting with visionary Mary McCormick of the Fund for the City of New York. Mary has created some incredible web content and software for low-income communities in the New York area. One of her favorites is the Breastfeeding Module. She passed it on to me to share with everyone here.
I hope you find it useful. I would be interested to hear from all our Breastfeeding experts what you think of it. After watching the first 4 small videos, I'm inspired!
The URL for direct access to the Breastfeeding Module is:
https://wic.parenthoodplus.org/wic/breastfeeding/
• username: breastfeeding
• password: nobottles
Comments
The power of peers
I have watched about two thirds of this impressive collection of short educational clips about breastfeeding. The most powerful clips are the ones in which peer counselors share their wisdom with their fellow mothers. It isn't enough (though it is essential) for professionals serving new mothers to educate them about breastfeeding. Women need to hear from other real women that breastfeeding matters and that it can and is being done in the kinds of contexts that real women find themselves in.
Most video clips in the collection did not make the paradigm shift needed to convey that breastfeeding is the biological norm, therefore there really are no "benefits" to breastfeeding. Rather, formula feeding has risks about which women are usually not informed. The research behind the US National Breastfeeding Campaign showed clearly that language which holds formula feeding as the norm and sets breastfeeding up as having benefits is *not* the most effective motivator for changing infant feeding beliefs, intentions, and behavior from formula feeding to breastfeeding. Still, due to its high prevalence of use, benefit-based infant feeding rhetoric is what most health care providers feel comfortable with. Switching to risk-based rhetoric really does require a paradigm shift and lots of practice!
Nonetheless, it's a great collection of video clips. Bravo to all those who had the vision to produce it, worked so hard to create it, and had the wisdom to include so many clips of breastfeeding peer counselors sharing their insight and experience. Very well done!
Cynthia Good Mojab
Director, LifeCircle Counseling and Consulting, LLC
www.lifecirclecc.com