Booby Traps

Breastfeeding baby is often not easy, and for some women, the choice is agonizing. The barriers can be personal, and also, cultural and legal.

www.bestforbabes.com, based in Little Silver, is leading the charge to defeat booby traps, the site’s clever name for institutional barriers to putting baby to the breast. Like offices where you are allowed a place to smoke, but not to pump breast milk. 

Co-founder Bettina Forbes says she started Best for Babes because she herself was reluctant to breastfeed and there was nothing like it to prod her along.

“I ended up sticking with it because I was lucky to have some great women (like my co-founder and best friend Danielle Rigg) in my life, and I feel incredibly grateful that I didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater so to speak, “ Bettina wrote us.

Danielle, a lactation counselor, and Bettina, who ran a non-profit for inner city kids, had their babies just six weeks apart. They both recognized that breastfeeding is difficult, and that women need to be coached, cajoled, and sometimes counseled through the experience.

“I knew that breastfeeding needed a makeover to make it more appealing to expecting moms . . . hitting them over the head with the benefits just wasn't working, and telling moms they had to nurse for a year wasn't helping when they could barely get through the first week.”

Best For Babes uses social marketing, including the ad, attached here, to create excitement and draw attention to the issue.

“We just figured that there had to be a fun and clever way to use boobs to sell what they were made for, not just cars and bras!” Bettina wrote.  

The  site includes resources and links for pregnant women and new mothers,  plus fun items like tee shirts and baby clothing for sale with the slogan “milking it for all its worth”.  

Breastfeeding is not for everyone. But understanding the benefits, and booby traps, may make one of a new mom’s first critical decisions a little bit easier.
 

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