The other day in the Milk Mom community, there was a post that Nan prepares a project with producers of a dairy mixture, which means it should be devoted to Anathema. Since this opinion directly concerns our reputation, values and work with brands and businesses, we cannot leave it without attention.
What's the matter?A few days ago, the Community "Dairy Mom" accused us in the normalization of artificial feeding, and also put together cooperation with the mixture producer.
After that, we tried to catch up in the fact that we, as a publication, do not really support breastfeeding in principle - they say, it can be seen even on our illustrations (!). Storsith appeared with calls to unsubscribe from Nen, who, they say, just sleeps and sees, how to slip their readers to poison in the form of a mixture.
So, how was it really?The project with the manufacturer of the mixture was actually discussed, but was only at the preparation stage. In the process, we tried to appeal to consultants for GW with a request to speak by speakers for him, but received several failures. And it would be worth staying - further searching for this field was probably not the most balanced decision. But since everything went as it went, and went beyond the scope of business correspondence, we should declare our position - not only on a specific situation, but in general.
Our editorial office really normalizes many different aspects of maternal and parental experience.Along with the themes of the joy of parenthood and love for children, we are talking about postpartum depression, cesarean kinds, prematurity, perinatal losses, the phenomenon of "troops", emotional burnout.
We are talking about the largest solo motherhood, about the search for kindergarten and adequate pediatrician. We are talking about the right of a woman for postpartum changes in body and physiology, breastfeeding, joint dream, refusal to punish and gender stereotypes. About the career, choosing a kindergarten, searching for nanny.
And we are talking about feeding with a mixture. Because it is, and we, as a publication that wants to form the most complete informational picture of modern parenthood, have no right to not pay attention to this phenomenon.
Of course, as a project that relies on the principles of evidence-based medicine and the value of WHO, in the texts of feeding infants, we regularly talk about the benefits of breastfeeding, we have research on its influence on the health of the mother and child, we consider the parent milk point of reference in the choice of feeding method and gold Food Standard for Little Child.
But the objective reality cannot be canceled, so we publish materials about those for those who went (for various reasons) by another way. We believe that showing the experience of mothers, nursing with a mixture or and a mixture, and encircled milk, important and correctly - too much in motherhood remains behind the scenes, is considered to be shame, stigmatized and marked as incorrect and bad.
Yes, there are things that really definitely bad are any violence against children and mothers, rejection of vaccination without real medical testimony, depreciation of the importance of mental health care before, during and after childbirth, mumshiming and hanging labels like "Jugma" - In short, a lot of things.
And one of our tasks is to help parents navigate in this world with a raging, provide them with objective and complete information about everything that worries them.To assemble the materials saturated with these materials as possible or give the opportunity to see your experience through the prism of others. Including - experience in breastfeeding and dairy mixtures. At the same time, in no text in which the Yves is somehow mentioned, you will not see any calls to refuse to use it from GW, nor statements that the mixtures are equal in its composition to breast milk.
And yes, we for the parents to have the right to a free and informed choice, including those in the WHO Code of Milk Replacement Marketing. For our part, we do our best for this.
We are not agitlestik and not a messenger of the "solely faithful" way to grow and raise children.Our project is trying to take into account and do not devalue different situations, problems and elections - even erroneous. You can not close the eyes on the problem of domestic violence - if it is not covered, its scale will not decrease. It is impossible not to say that the motherhood is not always a holiday, otherwise we will turn into the magazine "Pony riding on unicorns cocked Rainbow."
Very often, the mother, nursing the baby with a mixture, is a woman who experienced flour conscience, injury and guilt for "not able to do everything." Yes, we give such women a platform for statements and publish their history. But we also give a respected guv consultants the opportunity to speak out on our pages - that many of them are successfully implemented. And when the Consultants on GW faced the fact that young mothers were denied in the right to feed their children with breasts in the hospital due to the threat of the proliferation of coronavirus, we placed a note without any oscillations describing this unpleasant situation.
And we published a consultant column, which expressed the view that the state of the mother is more important than lactation at any cost. Well, because it is life, and it does not always develop according to the standard scenario. We never behaved from the fact that from time to time we return to this topic, because we consider it important in the context of motherhood. If we pretend that she does not concern us, we will be no better than those who consider breastfeeding in a cafe, a park or a shopping center with something indecent, and calls him to prohibit.
The separation of the world in general and parents in particular in the category of those who "with us" and who "not with us" will not lead to anything good.For all good and against all the bad - this is not the position that the media can occupy. To make content that will be useful to the reader, it is important to understand, in which world we live, and do our best to do it better. And it seems that we are still successful.
Yes, we often publish stories related to the difficulties of GW.And we do this in order to be represented by a different experience, so that GW does not look like something superfront and embedded in the default woman. Consultants themselves constantly say that breastfeeding is a social skill, which requires working as well as in contact with someone else's experience.
And this experience is often not the most rainbow - and we want to show it not as the problem of one particular woman (after all, she thinks that this is something with her, so that she is one that she is a loser), but indicate the systemicity of these failures : Doctors, society, incompetent specialists, pressure from relatives and loved ones are very often guilty that a woman does not work to organize the feeding of his dreams.
"You're from a harsh breed!", "You have little milk", "Yes, for the mixture", "you're empty", "you are all wrong", "You can not be cabbage / beets / tomatoes / peas," " Because of you, it was overwhelmed "- these are all women hear every day at home, do we all have to close your eyes? Isn't it a real problem that affects women and their decision to continue GW much worse than the publication of the stories of those who did not work? Is it not necessary to have a representative and the opportunity to speak out? And what it is pronounced and fixed in Nen's texts, once again confirms that breastfeeding needs an intensive discussion that there are still full stereotypes in society, literally harmful women.
We consider it very important to indicate these problems - to show that very often the GW occurs by struggle and contrary to the recommendations of those who actually must support and understand. If everything was so cool, as everyone would like, then there would be no work in GW consultants.
We are not a community, not a forum and not club of lovers of reality.We are a media speaking including the difficulties with which people may face the path of parenthood, for many years called and imposed as something that the woman is obliged to cope "by nature."
Very many texts about GW, written by our readers or permanent authors, contain a simple idea that everyone needs support is adequate, timely, careful. We want to convey this installation to the system too and very much hope that the visibility of experiences of those who are not so simple as they wanted to entail the necessary changes. We very much want the institutions with which a woman interacts with the child was turned to them face. And you can turn them with the help of mistakes, we will find a solution in reflection. Sooner or later.
We are constantly fighting for the right of a woman for breastfeeding where she and baby needed it: we have not only texts about why feed anywhere - it's completely okay, but also materials about the violation of the mother's right to GW in public spaces.
Nan never calls on mothers to observe the punitive "diet of a nursing mother" and sit on Cour and Grech. Disproves myths about feeding and lactating chest. Calls men to fit into the GW and becoming his lawyers.
We even regularly argue with the position of people who compare GW in a cafe with a defecation or write something like: "What is difficult to take a bottle with it with a milk!".
And we will continue, because we want the GW to be primarily normalized as a type of feeding. Nan stands in the forefront of this normalization - and it is not going to take its position. But also cease to be a media, which tells about different versions of how to grow a happy child, is also not going.
We are not physicians, not lactivists, not bloggers, not consultants, not trade representatives and not employees of the manufacturer of the mixtures.Nan makes his part of the work associated with the enlightenment and building the knowledge base about life with children. Does it as a media presenting the interests of their readers. And how we do it, solves the editorial policy, and not external factors.
As for any commercial cooperation, its conditions defines the advertising manifesto project, which, in turn, is still influenced by the editorial policy. The threshold of entry into the list of potential customers from Nan is very high: not every project or business can be our partner. Very often we have to refuse to cooperate, since we cannot find the points of contact with the client. Sometimes we offer all game, fully contrary to the values of the publication. And of course, we always have to evaluate the risks that will entail absolutely any commercial cooperation.
When searching for experts for materials, we try to take into account all subtle moments, but it is not always possible to do the most clearly. And of course, any speaker has the full right to refuse to participate in any of our project - commercial or editorial. Just as we can refuse to the client.
But even if it turns out that the potential project causes questions, it is not at all a reason to shove your head in the sand or far away, but the ability to make additional work, to evaluate the mechanism of commercial cooperation, talk and draw conclusions. So we are not afraid of disagreement - in the end, they are completely normal. We are open to discussion, constructive dialogue and respectful communication. We are ready to recognize mistakes and correct them. We generally like to be honest, transparent and frank.
But we definitely do not like when we are trying to attribute to the camp of cannibals and pests, judge us with prejudice and discuss us behind our back, assessing our actions that were not even produced.Yes, we consider the conversation about feeding with a mixture of an important part of the parent discussion. And do not make something illegal when we cooperate with the manufacturers of the mixture: in any other material - editorial or affiliate - there can be no call for the purchase of a substitute for breast milk.
We believe that parents have the right to a free informed choice - and they must do it on their own. No one has a monopoly on him.