Follow-Up to BF Campaign

Last week I shared my support (on my FB page) for this campaign showing unhealthy foods next to breast feeding babies with the text ‘Your Child is What You Eat.’ Posted as a campaign by the Pediatric Society of Rio Grande with news now that it is possibly backed by a formula company.

The intent of the campaign is what it is. Be it to scare women to choose formula or to demonstrate that what you put in your body affects (on some level) your offspring or both. It will evoke different emotions in each individual.

Here’s what you need to know about me. A) I love empowering women. B) I don’t settle. I don’t settle for mediocre. I never have and I never will. Not for myself, my clients, their families and the women I will one day empower. Telling a woman that her terrible diet ‘is fine’ is not okay in my books. Because it’s NOT FINE. Health professionals are settling when they don’t deeply encourage their clients to eat better, move more and follow-up to make sure they are. These DIRECTLY IMPACT a woman and child’s emotions, mindset and physical health. Pushing diet and exercise to the back burner is not fine, it’s settling. It’s giving power away. It’s putting birth and health outcomes in the hands of someone else, not the mother.

I have not read the scientific research behind breast milk quality and the quality of a woman’s diet. According to KellyMom.com, a woman’s diet does not impact the quality of her breast milk as ‘nature is very forgiving’ and a woman’s body is AMAZING. She goes on to state that a poor diet is going to impact mom more than baby. Truth, moms do not have to eat a perfect diet to give baby the perfect food because mom’s body is going to take from her stores to give to babe. This taking is putting them in lack, this is why eating a nutritious diet is so important!! To replenish mom’s stores!

My support of the ad campaign was not from a place to tell women they need to eat perfectly to produce nourishing breast milk, that they should feel guilty for not eating perfectly, or to shame moms for not eating healthy. My support comes from love, passion, as a health professional who’s done hundreds of hours of research on diet and exercise during pregnancy and postpartum and it’s powerful effects on the health of women and children. I’ve read the research on diet, exercise and their impact on: gestational diabetes, c-sections, post partum depression. Everything’s connected to the quality of movement and food.

Women need to make the best choices during pregnancy and as new moms and it’s my job to tell you to that it’s just as easy to buy fresh produce, whole food as it is to buy highly processed, sugar-laden crap. It’s all about choice. How do you want to feel? Take action (in little, do-able steps) to feel that way.