There has been lots of controversy surrounding a video that Evenflo put up on You Tube, and you know I have to weigh in on all things controversial so here we go...For those who don't know, Evenflo is a company that makes bottles, breast pumps, car seats etc. and I even have one of their single electric pumps. I feel like I should start by saying that I like the pump and though I now use a hospital grade double pump since returning to work, the Evenflo pump gets the smaller jobs done and it fits discreetly in my purse. Now... back to the video...
It is called "How to Survive the In-Law Feeding Frenzy" and I wish I could post it here but Evenflo has since taken it down and with good reason - it is as my friend C would say ... LAME. The video features a nursing mom who is under pressure from her in-laws to let them feed the baby. The mother-in-law enters the room and says, “Breastfeeding again?” and wonders if anyone else gets to give the infant milk. For almost three minutes, the new mother sneaks around the house so she doesn't upset anyone, eventually running away to the bedroom with her husband so she can pump some milk to give her in-laws a feeding chance. When the couple re-enters the kitchen with "the liquid gold," the father-in-law grabs the bottle and unknowingly uses the breast milk for his coffee.
My thoughts on this? Boooo! Evenflo is basically saying that the mom in this ad should go pump to accommodate the in-laws. While this scenario is quite common and I have heard lots of similar stories about families in my breastfeeding community, this ad is in my opinion condoning it all while actually discouraging women to breastfeed.
In the early days, I would pump so that other people could feed my baby. I was healing and I needed rest and since baby was still learning, a few improper latches did a number on me. But once we got the hang of it I established a rule -- If Mama (me) is in the house, then baby is breastfed. The ONLY time baby Aiden gets pumped milk is if I am not physically there. Everyone who chooses breastfeeding knows that it is crucial to milk-supply to nurse baby as often as possible. We also know that breastfeeding -- not just the milk but the actual act of breastfeeding-- is what is best for baby... so when did it become necessary to worry about what is best for anyone else?
Evenflo could have depicted the mom telling her mother-in-law "YES I am breastfeeding again, would you like to burp the baby when I am done?" But I get it, they wanted to be funny. Personally I would have found it funnier if the mom said "Back the hell off!" but that's just me :)
I am disappointed in this video just like many other breastfeeding moms but I also see how they were trying to convey that their product could be helpful in such a stressful situation. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong way to handle it.
As a new mom who is exclusively breastfeeding (after a pretty crazy journey) I know how it feels when family and people in our inner circle "get offended" by choices I make for my baby. If he cries and I grab him, they are offended, if I don't ask them to babysit or hold the baby, they are offended, if I don't take their advice, they are offended ... but at the end of the day my job is to do what I think is best for my baby and I can't worry about offending the whole world. I'm not going to let my baby scream hysterically just because you are holding him and I don't want you to be offended. Forget that crap, I am going to hold and comfort my baby. Sorry Charlie.
And if I was the mom in this ad, you better be darn skippy that it would have gone down in a TOTALLY different way. Okay kids, my rant is over ... I'm glad they took the video down.
~A
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