Best for Babes Announces “Take Action” Hub to Inform the Media & Moms of Breaking Advocacy News

Best for Babes is thrilled to announce a long-awaited and vital component to the success of the Breastfeeding Cause:  a centralized hub where moms and the media can get the latest information on breaking discrimination or harassment news, top campaigns, petitions, legal and policy changes and progress being made in Beating the Breastfeeding Booby Traps® that make breastfeeding unachievable and unpleasant for millions of moms and babies annually. Best for Babes is proud to provide this public service to facilitate grassroots advocacy efforts through its new hub – Take Action. www.bestforbabes.org/take-action.  

Moms are being urged to breastfeed and set up to fail, and they have had enough. They have had enough of  Booby Traps like discrimination and harassment at work and in public, and substandard breastfeeding care and guidance from hospitals and health care practitioners.  They’re taking back their and their babies’ right to breastfeed and they’re standing up for the kind of quality care and support they and their babies deserve for engaging in a behavior that is on par with exercise in its health benefits, and is as instinctive as hugging.

With liberty and justice for moms and babies!

Take Action is intended to serve the purposes of:

1.  Providing a one-stop resource to moms AND the media where they can find all the latest information pertaining to breastfeeding advocacy news, action campaigns and headlines.  To date, there has been no centralized source that the media and moms can check to see what’s happening and how to get involved; news is spread across different Facebook pages, websites blog posts and is not consolidated.

2.  Harnessing the power of individual moms, helping direct their energy and enthusiasm toward specific calls to action, and uniting and empowering them under the umbrella of the breastfeeding cause.   Take Action is a complementary effort to augment the incredible work that the United States Breastfeeding Committee does to effect policy change.  Where the USBC works on the “macro” level with it’s member breastfeeding organizations and other partners Best for Babes and Take Action seek to further the grassroots cause by bringing together moms who are pursuing change;

3. Distinguishing between grassroots advocacy efforts that have gained significant momentum and struck a chord among advocates and mothers (i.e. Top Campaigns) and advocacy “Breaking News” that needs reporting on to keep our followers and the media posted as it unfolds.  While Best for Babes is supportive of many individual and collective efforts to end the suffering, discrimination, sabotage and harassment too many moms endure while trying to breastfeed, BFB’s reporting about any particular activity or news item does not necessarily imply our endorsement. We see our advocacy role in the Breastfeeding Cause as coalescing  powerful resources and advisors around this critical public health and human rights issue, and as such to be a catalyst for societal change;  

4. Enabling us to put greater pressure on barriers like WHO-Code violations, and on physicians, hospitals, employers, and public places that undermine breastfeeding moms.  The Take-Action page will include valuable resources and links that moms and advocates can use to put pressure on the Booby Traps they face.

Take Action is, in short, a gift for the entire breastfeeding community, advocates, moms, the media, and ALL stakeholders who would benefit from a sea change in the way we view and support breastfeeding – which is ALL OF US! More breastfeeding means healthier people, and consequently, lower health care costs, less employee absenteeism, and a reduced burden on the environment.  When we help moms breastfeed, we all win!  

Take Action will be managed by Michelle Hickman (a/k/a “The Target Mom“), who has officially joined Best for Babes as the Volunteer  Director of Activism.  Michelle has demonstrated leadership of the more than 7000 moms who rallied around her and helped her organize the largest nurse-in in history (spanning 35 states and 100 Target stores) after she was harassed for breastfeeding in a Texas Target store in late November.  Michelle has her finger on the pulse of breaking news and a keen awareness of breastfeeding issues in communities countrywide, and has earned the trust and support of mothers and advocates.  She has volunteered tirelessly to serve mothers and babies and raise awareness of their issues.

Under the direction of Best for Babes Co-Founder and former employment lawyer Danielle Rigg, JD, CLC, Michelle will work closely with a volunteer Steering Committee and Legal Advisory Committee to ensure that the page is updated regularly and is useful and responsive to current events.   If you are interested in serving on the committee, and can uphold the Best for Babes Mission and Credo, please contact Michelle at Bestforbabes.org.  In order to leverage this page to bring about change, we need your help!  *Special thanks to Christie Haskell for helping us develop the hub.  

America is a “can-do” and “can change” country.  When we know better, we can do better, and we have time and time again.  There is nothing more Apple Pie than that.  So come on citizens, if we can do it for breast cancer, for women’s right to vote, and other great causes, we can do it for breastfeeding – the Mother of All Causes and the foundation of human health.  Our vulnerable and precious new moms and babies deserve the best from us!  And by uniting under the Best for Babes banner we are increasing our collective capacity to demand change — faster!

What do you think of our new Take Action page?   



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2 Comments | Last revised on 06/28/2012


This entry was posted in Advocacy, Breaking News, Main Content, Take Action and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Best for Babes Announces “Take Action” Hub to Inform the Media & Moms of Breaking Advocacy News

  1. Jeanne Batacan says:

    After you learn about The Birth Survey http://www.thebirthsurvey.com, I am hoping you will add this invitation, information and link to your webiste.

    Thank you!!

  2. Thank you for this exciting initiative! This is a resource I would have loved when I experienced breastfeeding harassment at a Pottery Barn store years ago. Luckily, my story ended on a positive note, with their President calling me as soon as she received my letter informing them of my mistreatment and requesting breastfeeding-friendly actions from the company. I emailed you directly with some ideas and look forward to seeing the impact of B4B’s Take Action!

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