Best for Babes

Bettina: “I didn’t really want to breastfeed, and by the time I changed my mind, I was having difficulties that could easily have been avoided. When I realized how close I had come to not breastfeeding, I started wondering, why were women like me getting turned off or throwing in the towel?  What were the cultural and institutional barriers that were tripping moms up?  What could be done to motivate, inspire and prepare women to breastfeed, without pressure, judgment or guilt?”

Danielle: “I always knew that I wanted to breastfeed, but found myself unprepared and unsupported by my hospital and my pediatrician. I became a certified lactation counselor because I didn’t want to see more moms with the best intentions to breastfeed set up to fail. I made it my personal mission to teach and support expecting parents to be inspired, prepared and empowered to breastfeed successfully.”

Bettina Lauf Forbes is a co-founder and the president of the Best for Babes Foundation, a new non-profit that is changing the cultural perception of breastfeeding through an image, branding and message makeover, and is shifting the focus on to the barriers–the “Booby Traps”–that keep moms from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals.   Best for Babes seeks to inspire, prepare, and empower women to breastfeed and believes that all mothers, regardless of their feeding decisions, should be cheered on, coached and celebrated without judgment, pressure or guilt. Because of her personal struggles with breastfeeding, Bettina became motivated to develop a cutting-edge social & business entrepreneurship hybrid to act as a catalyst in raising breastfeeding rates through a top-down marketing effort among partners with a vested interest.  In under 3 years the Best for Babes Foundation has launched a ground-breaking ad campaign, enrolled celebrities such as Kelly Rutherford and Gabrielle Reece, spurred corporate sponsors to invest in change, acted as a catalyst within the breastfeeding movement, and put positive pressure on the media to tell the story of moms who are being prevented from succeeding.  Bettina and her co-founder Danielle Rigg, COO have been featured in SHAPE magazine, Fit Pregnancy magazine, and quoted in USA Today & People magazine.  Bettina has a 10-year background in marketing and communications for Merrill Lynch, where she rescued, developed and managed a highly successful scholarship program for inner-city youth in ten major U.S. cities.  Ninety percent of the students randomly selected in the first grade graduated from high school, and the program received numerous awards, including this nation’s highest honor, the President’s “Points of Light” Service Award, in 1999. Previously, she held Development and Finance department positions at Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Bettina received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in Biology. A former Manhattanite, she is married with two young children, and lives in New Jersey.. Read Bettina’s Story »

Danielle Rigg is a co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of the Best for Babes Foundation.   She is also an attorney and certified lactation counselor (CLC).   At age 37, just prior to launching Best for Babes, Danielle was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Losing her breasts made her more motivated than ever to ensure that women and babies receive the tremendous gifts of breastfeeding — which include a reduced risk of breast cancer for both moms and their breastfed daughters—and consequently was featured in SHAPE magazine as one of ten “Women Who Shape the World” (alongside Michelle Obama) because of her work with the Best for Babes Foundation.   Prior to her work as a CLC, she practiced Employment Law with a prominent New York City firm and then became the Employment and Labor Counsel for a multi-state corporation in Stamford, CT.  In 2002, after a difficult experience breastfeeding her son, she became a CLC, resolute about helping other new parents to be set up for breastfeeding success through breastfeeding classes, support groups, and private consultations in Montclair, NJ.  In 2003, recognizing the sore lack of social and institutional support for breastfeeding, she expanded her practice by creating Milk ‘n Cookies, a community-based, multidisciplinary networking group for all professionals and businesses catering to new and expectant mothers in Montclair, New Jersey.  Danielle received her B.A. from Barnard College and her J.D. from St. John’s University. A former Manhattanite, she currently resides in Georgia with her musician/physician husband and two children.

Watch this slideshow by author Laura Keegan, RN, FNP about our nomination to the Michelle Obama “Let’s Move” campaign: