The Skinny on the New DOH Breastfeeding Campaign

The New York State Department of Health has recently launched a campaign entitled: “Breastfeeding…For my Baby. For Me” , which encourages new mothers to breastfeed.  While intentions behind the campaign are respectable, the campaign has been met with sharp criticism due to its emphasis on the relationship between breastfeeding and weight loss.

Despite years of clinicians’ best efforts breastfeeding rates remain dismal.  The American College of Nurse-Midwives endorses breastfeeding as the “optimal method of infant feeding” .  Even with a strong recommendation by the to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life, an American Academy of Pediatrics report published this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed less than half of women are breastfeeding at all at 6 months.

In this context, the New York State Department of Health has launched a new campaign, which includes TV and Web spots attempting to encourage women to breastfeed and learn more about breastfeeding on their website.  Links to two videos are included at the bottom of this post.

According the New York State Department of Health press release, “The campaign, which will run through the end of October, reaches out to new and expectant mothers, primarily in lower-income areas.  The campaign addresses the support that breastfeeding mothers need from family, employers, health care providers, and the community and describes the many benefits for mothers and their babies”

Their attempt to think outside the box in a context of such unfortunate national statistics is laudable.  While their campaign will likely resonate with a new group of mothers and attract them to breastfeeding, their appeal to women’s insecurities regarding weight is highly problematic.  Women already face significant social pressure regarding weight and to loose baby-weight quickly.  A new baby is a significantly stressful life event, even without the added stress of societal pressure to loose weight.

There is no problem with highlighting the weight loss advantage, but to focus on that alone, especially as do these ads, does not serve the interests of the community, new mothers or the health of their babies. It is worrisome that there may be a priority imbalance at play, with a woman’s post pregnancy weight loss taking precedence over any other possible benefits (maternal/infant bonding, proper infant nutrition, decreased rates of breast and ovarian cancer among moms who breastfeed, etc.). The emphasis should remain on the health of the family.

Perhaps these ads will be good for new mothers in a different way.   Discussions associated with the controversial ads bring some much-needed attention to the importance of breastfeeding.  In turn, it encourages mothers to learn more about breastfeeding and its benefits for infants and mothers.

Campaign 1 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZU32uFKLRE]

Campaign 2 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjoWWUYDKQM]

Jen Busse, RN, MPH, is an intern at the CHMP, and currently pursuing an MS in nursing as a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner at Columbia University.

The New York State Department of Health

Telling Stories Strategically Using Digital Media to Influence Policy

Jessie Daniels

I’m very excited about one of the projects that I worked on over the summer, and wanted to share the results of this with readers here.

The goal of this project was to create policy changes that would improve life for seniors in East Harlem, one of the designated “aging improvement districts” in New York City.   The project was a collaboration between members of the community in East Harlem, the Health Policy division at New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and several of us at Hunter College, including Martin Dornbaum (of the HPEC / media center at Brookdale) and Joseph Pelaez and Jonathan Mena of ICIT.   We used some equipment obtained through a previous grant award (GRTI). The result of the collaboration was this video (15:53) which illustrates the research findings of NYAM’s community-assessment survey through the stories of several seniors living in East Harlem.

The video was screened last week (August 31) at a large event hosted by NYAM.  Those attending the event included service providers, policy makers, and members of the East Harlem community, including those featured in the video. As the video was being screened, at least one policy maker placed a phone call and implemented a change on the spot – and then announced it later in the meeting.  Community members cheered when they recognized friends and neighbors on screen.

While in many ways, this kind of ‘accountability’ meeting is an established practice in community-organizing and policy circles, I think the strategic use of digital video here – both to engage community members and influence policy makers – is a new and innovative development.

I also hope that this collaboration can serve as a model for how we might work together with our new neighbors in East Harlem.

Jessie Daniels, Senior Fellow, The Center for Health, Media and Policy, Associate Professor, Hunter College

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We Welcome William M. Silberg, Senior Fellow & Chair, CHMP Advisory Board

Bill Silberg

Bill Silberg is a strategic publishing and communications consultant with 30 years experience in health, medicine, health policy and science, in both the professional and consumer sectors. Prior to starting his consulting business, he spent three years as Vice President for Publishing and Communications at the New York Academy of Sciences, where he oversaw the nation’s oldest continually published scientific serial (the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences), as well as web publishing and public outreach. He came to the Academy after three years at The Commonwealth Fund, an independent, private foundation that studies and supports research on health care policy and social issues. At Commonwealth, where he was Senior Vice President for Communications and Publishing, he oversaw an overhaul of the foundation’s web site, dramatically increasing the Fund’s professional and public visibility. Prior to joining Commonwealth in 2003, Bill was Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at Medscape from WebMD, the online portal for health and medical professionals worldwide. He spent four years at Medscape after a 13-year career in publishing at the American Medical Association, where he served as Science News Editor, Deputy Editor of American Medical News, and Web Editor and Editorial Director for Medical News and New Media at JAMA. Previously, he served as Associate Director for Public Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals and, prior to that, spent seven years with United Press International as a reporter, editor and bureau chief in Albany, NY; Detroit; Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

[caption id="attachment_496" align="alignleft" width="112" caption="Bill Silberg"][/caption] Bill Silberg