J & G: Breastfeeding Movement Needs Strong Male Voices

Typically, women are spearheading the breastfeeding movement. Which is good, since we’re the ones typically doing the breastfeeding (but not always!). However, we think there is a space at the table for men as well. Partners certainly can play a big role in beating the Booby Traps® and helping moms reach their breastfeeding goals! We are so excited to have TWO men named Champions for Moms. Justin Forsett is a running back for the Baltimore Ravens, and George Moss is a hip hop artist with Dreamlight Entertainment. These two fathers are engaging, smart, and very supportive of breastfeeding, and we wanted to see what happened when we put them together!

JF: How did you get into the breastfeeding movement?

GM: Well, I would like to say just completely by accident. My wife was out on the road with me and we left the baby with a friend of ours, so she had to pump. I’m backstage washing bottles and stuff after I get done and I just took a little selfie. Being silly and, saying something to the effect of like, “this is what rappers do when they get off stage at concerts.” And I’m just thinking it was like little joke, I hash-tagged it #ThugLife or something like that. I thought it was funny, and then people started liking it. And sharing it. I started to realize that maybe it wasn’t people that got the joke. They thought that it was actually important that I was doing this. And honestly, before that moment I had no idea this was such a big conversation. I was completely oblivious that there are communities speaking about breastfeeding, and that it’s so big. I was like deer in the headlights man. I was like, how did this happen?

George Moss

JF: I know that for myself, my wife, she is all in, kind of like your song, Go Hard Or Go Home, with everything that she does. Like she is committed! And so when she decided breastfeed, I didn’t know anything about it. I don’t think any of the friends that we were hanging out with at the time were breastfeeding. So it was all kind of new for me as well. And you know, starting off with it was definitely different. Especially at the beginning when our oldest wasn’t latching on. And after a couple of times of it not working, I was getting worried that my man, my son, wasn’t getting anything to eat. But just talking to her and talking to some of the people she did know that were breastfeeding, just being able to get that encouragement and understand what was happening, really helped out a lot. Now going on to our second baby, who is eleven months, it’s like we’re naturals, we’re veterans in the game - people call us for help.

GM: How did you get involved with the breastfeeding movement and Best for Babes?

JF: It started a couple years ago. I was a free agent at the time, just training and getting ready for a call from a team. Best for Babes asked my wife and me to come speak at the WK Kellogg First Food Forum in San Antonio. Before this, we really didn’t know there was a community or there was a group of people who were trying to get the word out about having a strong support system. So we went to event and were able to speak and share about our experiences. And that’s how we got connected to Best for Babes and learned more about the movement.

GM: Yeah it’s just one of those things. I had no idea that this was such a huge, huge conversation.

JF: Dude, your voice is just like, how did I even get here?

GM: Especially when you hear a football player talking about breasts. I mean, usually that’s a totally different subject. So when you talk about breastfeeding, it kind of throws people off, like, Wow. Uh. Really?

JF: You know, that kind of opens up doors. I was telling my PR team for the Ravens about what I was doing today. They were like, “Really? Man, you’ve got so many different sides to you. I would have never thought that Justin Forsett, the star running back for the Ravens was part of a breastfeeding movement.”

Justin Forsett

GM: Yeah, I can see a lot of it is there is a lack of male voices in general to speak about it. I didn’t realize how much of a need there was for that. So when you do speak up and say something in a position where, you know, men talk about breasts quite a bit, but without the feeding part, it’s cool to see a man using that platform.

JF: Did you ever imagine you’d ever be in the public spotlight about breastfeeding?

GM: You know it’s so funny, I feel like I’m way more known for breastfeeding than I am ever for the music I create! [laugh]. And that’s totally fine. The whole reason I do what I do anyway was never for the purpose of music in and of itself. It was to say and do something that was important to someone else. First and foremost, my support is to my wife. But, if others are able to get something from that, then that’s all good. Part of what I want to do is speak on important issues. Because I feel like I’ve got a lot to say about things. And I’ve got a lot more perspective now because I didn’t even realize it was an issue. Like breastfeeding to me was something that was a very personal, intimate thing that my wife and I as a family decided to do. And the fact that it connects and resonates with other people was an accident. But I think it’s a great opportunity as well to be able to speak some common sense. Because apparently there’s a lot of people that don’t have any. [laugh].

JF: I saw a Twitter conversation about Alyssa Milano talking about breastfeeding on the Wendy Williams Show. So I asked why people had a problem. You know, I got some crazy responses on Twitter. Like guys were saying, “I don’t pull my stuff out in public when I need to use the bathroom, so you know, why do you have to pull out your breasts?” You know, some crazy stuff. I also brought up the topic in the training room. The guys were like, “Man it’s just, it’s just weird.” Or you know, “it’s just different or awkward to see that.” I’m like, man, no one says anything when you see a poster of a woman in a bikini. I think more people need to be informed and that’s why we’re here.

GM: Yeah. It’s just that we live in this twisted world. Where like what is good is called evil or bad. And what’s bad is called good. Like, in that interview, Wendy Williams was showing these pictures of Miley Cyrus with little straps over her breasts and that’s okay. You know, that’s fine. And that’s something that little girls can look up to. But to see a woman that’s trying to feed her baby the best nutritionally dense food you can get – somehow that’s gross. Or people don’t need to see that. It’s mind-boggling to me that it’s even a thing. Like it still shocks me that people have absolutely no sense.

Do you think we need more male voices in the breastfeeding movement? Stay tuned for the rest of our sit-down with Justin and George!

 



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