Tan France, Hannah Bronfman, Lesley Anne
Murphy, and Kelly Stafford join Bobbie for First National Awareness
Campaign to Normalize Every Kind of Feeding Journey During
Breastfeeding Awareness Month
Today Bobbie, the first European-style organic infant formula
meeting FDA requirements and only female-founded and mom-led infant
formula company in the U.S., launched its first national awareness
campaign to evolve the conversation around how parents feed their
babies. The brand is speaking up for modern parents via surrogacy,
same sex parents, adoptive parents, mastectomy moms, working moms
and those who should prioritize their health, families or other
children. The conversation should evolve to include these modern
parents and amplify ‘Every feeding journey’. Bobbie’s “How is
feeding going?” campaign seeks to normalize all feeding journeys
from pumping to supplementing to exclusively formula feeding and
take on the internet’s pervasive “feeding trolls.”
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the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210801005024/en/
(L to R) Lesley Anne Murphy, Tan France,
Kelly Stafford, and Hannah Bronfman join Bobbie in a movement to
evolve the conversation on how we feed our babies by asking a new
question, 'how is feeding going?' (Photo: Business Wire)
Evolving the conversation starts with evolving the questions and
assumptions around infant feeding. That’s why Bobbie is asking
parents, doctors, and health care providers to pledge to ask the
inclusive question “How is feeding going?” rather than the outdated
question “How is breastfeeding going?” Bobbie is creating a virtual
safe space at howisfeedinggoing.com for parents to share
their own stories and give a voice to the silent majority, the 83%
of U.S. parents that turn to formula in the first year of their
baby’s life.
Joining Bobbie’s mission to shake the stigma is Tan
France, TV host and expecting father via surrogacy, Hannah
Bronfman, entrepreneur, activist, and mom of one, Lesley
Anne Murphy, a double mastectomy previvor and new mom, and
Kelly Stafford, a stay-at-home mom of four, all who
represent the voices of modern parenting.
Bobbie’s campaign begins on the first day of National
Breastfeeding Awareness Month where breastfeeding mothers are
celebrated, promoted, and supported, especially across social
media. The month is rooted in the Breast is Best campaign, a public
health PSA that began in the late 1990’s to increase breastfeeding
rates. The campaign has without a doubt been successful as rates
grew significantly for infants breastfed initially from 24.7% in
1971 to 84.1% in 2017. Yet the demands and paths to becoming a
parent have evolved dramatically in the last quarter century, while
the messaging around feeding has not. Since Breast is Best
launched, the number of working women as household breadwinners has
almost doubled, there are five times as many babies born via
surrogacy in the U.S., and today more than 170,000 children are
being raised by same sex parents.
“The question really should be how is your feeding going, not
how is breastfeeding going because every journey is so different.
‘Breast is Best’, implies that whatever you’re doing that’s not the
breast, is second best. I really don’t feel like I’m giving (my
baby) the second best,” said Hannah Bronfman, Founder of HBFIT,
entrepreneur and new mom. After falling short of her own
6-month breastfeeding goal while juggling her business during the
pandemic, she had to overcome her own internal guilt of turning to
formula. “There are a thousand and one reasons why it might not
work out for you-- and that’s okay.”
“I need the conversation to evolve so that my own child doesn’t
grow up thinking he is second best because he is formula fed,” said
Tan France, TV host and expectant father. France added that
the pressure to source breastmilk is prevalent amongst same sex
parents. “Ever since we announced we are having a baby, people have
asked where will you get your donor milk? Will the surrogate be
donating her milk? It’s such a strange thing that at any point no
one has talked about formula,” France said.
Lesley Anne Murphy had both breasts removed before having a baby
after testing positive for the BRCA breast cancer gene. Her six
month old has been exclusively formula fed and she said she has
gotten backlash on her Instagram account for her inability to
breastfeed. “One parent messaged me to say, ‘you are selfish for
getting your breasts removed before you had your baby- you didn’t
even have cancer.’ We need to learn how to be kind to new parents
and less judgemental about each other's personal choices.”
Kelly Stafford, a stay-at-home mom to four children under four,
philanthropist, and wife of LA Rams quarterback, Matt Stafford,
made the decision to go straight to formula for her fourth baby and
received negative backlash on Instagram. “People were telling me I
was selfish for not even trying to breastfeed, but I needed to
prioritize my mental health and being present for all four of my
girls and my husband. That is what was best for all of us.”
“We don’t disagree that breast milk is nutritionally the gold
standard for infants; it’s dynamic and personal in a way that
formula will never be. But the real formula is a parent’s entire
feeding journey where so many factors play into whether breast milk
will even be an option at all,” said Laura Modi, co-founder and CEO
of Bobbie. “The same government that is telling us to breastfeed
for six months is the same government that has no guaranteed paid
leave policy. It’s no wonder parents have to turn to formula and
they should never feel guilty for however they choose to feed their
babies. Period,” Modi added.
As a purpose-driven company, Bobbie started with community, not
commerce. They first launched Milk-Drunk, a content site providing
a place for parents at the crossroads of feeding to get
straightforward answers, support, and information. Recently, they
launched The MotherLode, an initiative enabling Bobbie customers to
become their investors to start a new kind of relationship between
brands and its consumers, democratize fundraising, and allow
parents to invest in brands they believe in and use.
In honor of these four modern parents boldly sharing their
feeding journeys, Bobbie is donating 96,000 bottles of Bobbie to
milk insecure babies in the U.S. at four non-profits of their
choice throughout August. To learn more about “How is feeding
going?” or to make the commitment please visit
www.howisfeedinggoing.com.
About Bobbie
Bobbie is an Organic Infant Formula company that exists to build
a parenting culture of confidence, not comparison, where every
parent is supported in the feeding choice that is right for them
and their baby. Bobbie will be initially selling direct-to-consumer
and offering a subscription service to parents across the US.
Bobbie is mom-founded and led and supported by a 20 person
“Motherboard” of advisors and a Medical Advisors made up of
doctors, lactation consultants, doulas, pediatricians, and
professionals who contribute their expertise to building a
next-generation formula company. Bobbie was founded in 2018, is
based in San Francisco, and is venture backed. For more information
on Bobbie, visit www.hibobbie.com, and follow Bobbie on Instagram
@bobbie.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210801005024/en/
Kim Chappell at press@hibobbie.com