Best for Babes

November 2009 Issue

When we first heard that SHAPE magazine wanted to honor Best for Babes Co-Founder Danielle Rigg in their annual list of “Women Who Shape the World”, we were overjoyed . . . when the issue hit the newstands today, and we saw that Danielle was included in an incredible group of 10 movers and shakers, headed up by Michelle Obama, we were truly humbled and, well, blown away!

We are so grateful to SHAPE for shining the spotlight on the Best for Babes Foundation.   Best for Babes is  the first and only non-profit that is giving breastfeeding a makeover and bringing together celebrities, corporations, foundations, non-profits, fashion, advertising, the media and the medical community to “Beat the Booby Traps™” -the cultural and institutional barriers that keep moms from making an informed decision and from achieving their personal breastfeeding goals!    Best for Babes believes that ALL women deserve to be cheered on, coached andcelebrated without pressure, judgment and guilt, and is catalyzing a positive culture change.

Bravo to SHAPE for including an awesome photograph of a nursing mom, which helps normalize breastfeeding (many women have never seen another mother nursing) and puts breastfeeding squarely in the camp of fitness, health and HOT!   It sends a strong message to expecting and new mothers that “we’ve got your back, babe and you can do it!”

Best for Babes Co-Founder Danielle Rigg, (on right) with mom Claire Belanger courtesy SHAPE magazine

Thank you SHAPE for sharing Danielle’s story, which is especially poignant this month as Danielle  is also a recent breast cancer survivor.    A diagnosis at age 37, grueling chemotherapy and a double mastectomy only renewed Danielle’s commitment to preventing breast cancer and helping more mothers reap the protective benefits of breastfeeding for themselves and for their daughters.   New studies suggest that women with an immediate family history of breast cancer who breastfeed have a 59% lower risk of developing the disease themselves, and breastfed baby girls have a 25% lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life.   Every woman that is not prevented from succeeding at breastfeeding is potentially another life saved.  Every woman that shares her positive breastfeeding experience without pressure, judgment or guilt mends the broken cycle of intergenerational support and leads the way for her peers and future generations.

Being honored by SHAPE is a perfect fit (pun intended)! because breastfeeding is a lot like working out or riding a bike; there is a learning curve but if you stick with it, and get inspired, prepared and empowered you will be amazed at what you and your body can do (and your baby will thrive and love it!).  SHAPE magazine has over 1 million readers, and is an extremely popular magazine for women’s health and fitness, motivating women to eat better, exercise, and take the actions to become healthier and feel great about themselves.   SHAPE and Best for Babes use everyday and celebrity success stories to encourage women to achieve their personal goals and feel fabulous.    (I turned to SHAPE when I was desperate about my post-pregnancy bod.   You can’t pick up the magazine without immediately wanting to eat a delicious salad and head to the gym, and best of all, you will be pumped up to actually enjoy it!)   So it is a magazine that we respect and admire because it is doing something good for women and for the planet.   Healthier, stronger, more empowered women are what our world needs!

We congratulate the other honorees! It is profoundly humbling  to be included with 10 other leaders who are making a difference in women’s health and wellness.  Honorees include Michelle Obama who is leading a national trend back to homegrown produce;  Robyn O’Brien, founder of Allergy Kids, who is urging healthier eating of organic, unprocessed, non-GMO foods to curb the allergy epidemic, Karen Durkin, CEO of the Women’s Sport Foundation, who is helping inner city girls participate in team sports and thereby achieve greater health, self-esteem and academic achievement,  and Suzanne Jones, founder of YogaHope, who is teaching yoga, stress reduction and addiction coping skills to women recovering from alcohol or drug addiction.

On a final note, I want to acknowledge Danielle personally.   Danielle is not only my best friend and business partner, she is also my hero.   Throughout her devastating battle with cancer, and despite her recurring health issues, she has been my source of strength and inspiration.   Starting a breastfeeding non-profit is not easy, and we have faced many adversities and have often figured things out by the seat of our pants.   Danielle’s faith in me, in Best for Babes, and our mission of helping mothers and babies has been unshakeable, through thick and thin, and has been the glue that has held us together!    I am proud to be part of this venture with her!

-Bettina

To get involved or donate, go to http://www.bestforbabes.org. Best for Babes is a non-profit 501c3.  All donations go directly to raising awareness, changing the cultural perception, bringing more evidence-based information and our comprehensive strategy into the hands of moms and key influencers, catalyzing positive change, cheering on moms and those that support them, and “beating the booby traps”-the cultural and institutional barriers to breastfeeding success. Whew!

In a Newsweek Exclusive, the IRS has confirmed that mothers who have suffered a double mastectomy can not deduct the expense of infant formula.

We certainly sympathize with the Harris family-Best for Babes Co-Founder Danielle Rigg is a breast cancer survivor who also endured a double mastectomy.  And we understand the frustration with perceived double standards when ”condoms, hypnosis, yoga and even dancing lessons” are considered medical costs with a doctor’s note that can then be “deducted as pre-tax income for medical expenses not covered by insurance.”  Breast cancer survivors should not be penalized when they can not breastfeed.

We wonder, however, if Newsweek, Mr. Harris and his wife would consider using their considerable connections and resources to advocate for donor milk and human milk banks.   The World Health Organizations states that pasteurized, screened donor milk is a superior choice to infant formula.    Best for Babes believes milk banks should be as ubiquitous as blood banks.   Formula is an adequate substitute for human milk, but it is certainly not “medicine”, in fact, formula is associated with considerable health risks.   Formula-fed babies have 3 times as many hospital visits, so actually using formula instead of donor milk means greater health care costs for all of us. 

Since “Dr. Scholl’s footpads, sunscreen, birth control, and prescription sunglasses all qualify as medical care for the ‘diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease,’ according to the IRS”, it would be worth finding out if donor milk can be deducted as a medical expenses, since human milk mitigates, treats and prevents disease. 

In addition to Newsweek, allies of the Harris family include former California governor Gray Davis, a family friend, Rep. Henry Waxman, who wrote a letter to the IRS supporting the Harrisons. ”Breast-cancer survivor organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, also urged the IRS to reconsider, and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis took the case pro bono, putting one of its top tax attorneys, Todd Maynes, on the job.”   

Boy wouldn’t those “heavy-hitters” be helpful in getting more human milk banks established and ensuring that all mothers who can’t breastfeed due to a double mastectomy have access to the very best substitute for their own milk, screened, pasteurized, donor milk.  Because then we would be truly saving more lives in one fell swoop. 

Let’s PUMP for the cure right under our nose, literally!

When we tell people we are in the boob business this is what we hear:   

1)   What’s the big deal?   Aren’t most moms breastfeeding? 

No.  Although 64% of new mothers try breastfeeding, only 14% make it to the minimum six months exclusive breastfeeding recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Worse, most throw in the towel in the first few weeks.  Compare that to Sweden’s rates of 99% initiating and 79% nursing at 6 months, respectively, no wonder the U.S. has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding among all industrialized nations.   Thousands of needless deaths, and billions in health care costs in the U.S. could be prevented by raising our national breastfeeding rate.  

Especially shocking is that breastfeeding rates actually declined from 70% in 2002 to 63.6% in 2006 following the Government’s $40 million ad campaign highlighting the risks of not breastfeeding.  This nearly invisible campaign was botched under powerful lobbying pressure from the formula companies-who increased their own advertising budgets from $30 million to $50 million while the ads ran.  To top it off, the government buckled to pressure and held back a press release on a major meta-study underscoring the risks of not breastfeeding (see below)-information that prospective parents DESERVE to have. 

2)  I wasn’t breastfed and I turned out fine.  

Another way of looking at this statement is to compare it to statements like “I didn’t wear a seatbelt when I was a kid and I turned out fine” or “I didn’t wear sunscreen as a kid and I don’t have skin cancer.” 

For the first example,  seatbelts, we all know by now that seatbelts save lives, mostly because of a brilliant ad campaign that drummed it into our heads, and statistics on crash fatalities involving seatbelts or lack thereof.  Luckily for the seatbelt campaign, there were various industries that benefitted from seatbelt laws: automakers that installed them meaning new cars had to be purchased, and law enforcement that could fine if people were not wearing seatbelts!    Most importantly, there were no industries that were lobbying against or advertising against wearing seatbelts, as it would be really bad public relations.   Not so for breastfeeding.   It gets lobbied against and combined marketing budgets total in the billions. 

In the second example, skin cancer, it’s somewhat like the first; we know frying in the sun without sunscreen increases the risk of skin cancer, and effective advertising campaigns combined with industries that stand to benefit made for a great combination in educating the public. 

But what if you add “yet” to the end of the sunscreen sentence?  “I didn’t wear sunscreen, and I don’t have skin cancer, yet”.   That’s really what we should hear when someone says “I wasn’t breastfed, and I turned out fine.”   You may be fine for now.  And we don’t want to scare anyone, but everybody is working really hard to sweep the risks of formula under the rug, and that is not right, or ethical.   Parents deserve to know what the risks are, so they can make the best decision for themselves and their families.   

So why do so many people seem “fine”?   Well, for one thing, most people are not aware of the risks of not breastfeeding, so they are not thinking, I have digestive problems, or allergies, or diabetes, and it could be because I wasn’t breastfed.   So when people say, “I turned out fine,” we try not to debate on an individual basis, because every person is different!   Some people we know smoked like a chimney their whole lives and never got cancer, but nobody would dream of saying “smoking is fine.”  

One thing people might want to consider is that times have changed.  Our immune systems need all the help they can get given an increase in environmental stress, overuse of antibiotics, increase in vaccines (and the autoimmune diseases that may be related to that).  While the previous generation may have turned out fine not so for this generation, that has drastically increased rates of obesity, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, allergies and autism, to name a few.   Our view is that babies nowadays especially need all the help they can get, and that means breastmilk, either from the mother, or screened, pasteurized, donated human milk.  

Here is an excellent summary* of the news release that was withheld under the influence of formula lobbyists: 

Breastfeeding reduces babies’ risk of these diseases by:

• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS):  36% 
• Type 1 Diabetes:  19-27%
• Type 2 Diabetes:  39%
• Leukemia (acute lymphocytic) :  19%
• Leukemia (acute myelogenous):  15%
• Asthma:  27%
• Gastrointestinal infections:  64%
• Lower respiratory tract diseases:  72% 
• Atopic dermatitis:  42%
• Acute otitis media:  50%

And breastfeeding reduces mothers‘ risk of these diseases by:

• Type 2 Diabetes:  4-12%
• Ovarian cancer:  21%
• Breast cancer:  28%  

*(from Motherwear’s breastfeeding blog,    “This information comes from a new meta-analysis (study of studies) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   This study looked over 9,000 studies on breastfeeding from developed countries, weeded out the ones with poor methodology, and came up with an overall percentage for each one.  This is harder than it sounds because “breastfeeding” is defined differently in each study.”)