West Bengal Breast Milk Resource Network

30/03/2022

Time to bid farewell. Thank you all for all the learnings and the support!

11/08/2021

PLEASE AMPLIFY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

09/08/2021

"The Baby Killer (Report) explained how multinational milk companies like his (Nestlé) were causing infant illness and death in poor communities by promoting bottle feeding and discouraging breast feeding."

- Mike Muller (2013)

The contentious Baby Killer Report of 1974 was an exposé on the rogue ways in which companies like Nestlé were trying to build a market, especially in poor countries, for their newly launched milk powder product as an allegedly veritable substitute to breast milk. Guided by a thirst to capture a new avenue for revenue generation, these companies actively participated in creating stigma around breastfeeding and the consumption of breast milk, leading to a huge number of infant deaths.
Needless to say, accountability for these deaths are still due.

In our interactions with caregivers in the last few months since we started, the debate between breast milk and formula milk on the question of efficacy persisted. While on one side medical practitioners repeatedly asserted on the importance of breast milk as the sole source of nutrition for infants, caregivers informed us how certain private hospitals insisted against it.
The findings of the Report, thus, can be observed even today.

As we celebrate Breastfeeding Week globally and Breastfeeding Month on our platform, for larger engagement, we bring you what can be considered to be one of the most decisive pieces on the politics beneath the emergence of powdered milk as a substitute to breast milk.

As the entire report cannot be posted on social media, we urge you to DM us for the PDF version. You can click on the link attached to access Muller's 2013 follow-up article in The Guardian and access the relevant links to the report from there.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-baby-milk-scandal-food-industry-standards

Obesity and diabetes show that better standards in the food industry must be enforced, writes Mike Muller, author of the 1974 baby milk scandal report

07/08/2021

"On February 5th, I became mother of a lovely baby boy. We named him Turup. Like every mother,I also decided to do my level best for his well-being and to keep him healthy and it was a learning process for me too. The importance of breastfeeding is known to all. Breast milk is considered to be the most nutritious food for newborns. The longer you can breastfeed,the better for your baby.

Initially I had faced a lot of difficulties regarding breastfeeding. It was new to me as well as to my son. So it was a heck of a phase! There were times when I felt like giving up,I had extreme back pain, I was sleep deprived....but I survived😊. It's been 6 months that I'm breastfeeding my son and I wish to do so for a year more at least, if I can manage. And trust me, I feel great, I feel proud, I feel satisfied that I could do this for my baby ( it's difficult,let me confess, really difficult).

Having said these, let me tell you, it's a completely natural biological process. Some may have lot of milk flow, some may not. I'm lucky that my baby was exclusively on breastfeeding. Now, he will be introduced to solid food slowly. There were very rare occasions, when I had to give him formula. But if a mother is not having enough milk flow, it's completely okay. It's not in anybody's hand. There are lots of babies who grow up having formula. Please, let us not give guilt trips to those mothers who are not having enough milk flow. It's so hurtful for the mothers. Already, we, the new mothers go through a lot of physical, mental and emotional ups and downs in all these months. So, please don't make things more difficult for us. WE give birth to the babies. If something goes wrong, WE really feel helpless at the first place. I personally have felt this. Please give us support, give us care, help us to make this bumpy road a little bit smoother. Rest, we can take care well. And understand, we are new mothers. Everything is new to us. So we need time to get accustomed to this new life, new responsibility. And, one more thing, which is really important, the time has changed, so, the way our mothers used to handle us, take care of us, would definitely not be the same now. Accept it.

Lastly, all my best wishes for the new mothers. We are Rockstars 🤘🏻. Stay healthy stay happy. Much much love. ❤️"

-Sneha Chatterjee, Actor

07/08/2021

"I always saw those government ads about breast milk awareness and felt strongly that I need to breastfeed my baby when I have one. I delivered my child through vaginal birth at 1.38 am and first tried feeding around 6 in the morning.
Later I came to know the importance of feeding the child in the first two hours after birth and I regret not trying that. The first time she latched with her little mouth it felt weird, but in an amazing way. For a long time I was really scared that she will suffocate under the weight of my breasts. Now we are about to complete six month of exclusive breastfeeding, but the journey wasn't smooth at all there were lot of hurdles. My baby had Acid Reflux so she would cry 6-7 hours at a stretch and not sleep or feed. Then we got Covid and she refused to feed. I was so scared that she might get dehydrated. That I tried to feed her pumped milk through syringe but she would cry so much that she would gag and puke. I had to take the risk and try Dream Feeding. That was the only way to feed her then and thankfully that worked. We have worked through fast letdowns, bad latch, breast refusal, painful let downs, sore ni***es, engorgement, milk blebs and are still working on that perfect latch but by God's grace I could exclusively breastfeed my child. I have heard so many times that she is not getting enough and have thought about giving up but kept going and will keep going for a few years."

-SS

05/08/2021

🌼Hello caregivers!🌼

Help us tell your stories in any way you want.
Cannot wait to hear from you all.🤩

Send in your entries to us on Instagram/Facebook (https://www.instagram.com/wbbmrn/)
OR
Mail us at-
wbbmrn.2021@gmail.com

We also urge you to amplify this as much as you can 🤍
Thank you for your continued support!🌻

P.S.- Thank you caregivers who have reached out till now.
We will start posting your entries soon! 🌼

Poster courtesy- Samyabrata Mitra

03/08/2021

Greetings all,

As you know, August 1st-7th is observed as World Breastfeeding Week to spread awareness and break social stigma around breastfeeding.

To this end, we have decided to share stories/poems/quotes/sketches by caregivers about their breastfeeding experiences throughout this month.

This is open for all caregivers and you can reach out to us with anything you want to share regarding your breastfeeding experience and we will post them from our page.
You need not worry about privacy as we will only use the initials of your name, age and city of dwelling (unless, of course, you want us to tell more).

Through this, we hope to build a repository of caregiver experiences that will further encourage others to speak up about theirs and help us normalise the conversation around breastfeeding.

Please note that this is open for all current and past breastfeeders.

Hope to hear from you all soon!

Send in your entries-
Inbox us here on facebook
OR
Instagram( https://instagram.com/wbbmrn?utm_medium=copy_link )
OR
You can also mail us at-
wbbmrn.2021@gmail.com
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSD6GuhlE6O/?utm_medium=share_sheet

02/08/2021

Kickstarting

Watch this space for more.

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-benefits-of-breastfeeding/article35670751.ece

The promotion of breastfeeding should be a continuous process, not an event restricted to a week

28/06/2021

WBBMRN is looking for donors!

According to WHO, human milk is the best source of nutrients for infants. In its absence, Pasteurized Donor Human Milk (PDHM) is medically considered to be the next best alternative.

The only obstacles in the way to ensure Human Milk Donation-
1) Lack of awareness
2) Social stigma

We are resolved to do our bit to remove these obstacles and normalise Human Milk Donation.

We, therefore, appeal to caregivers to come forward and join our cause as donors.
We assure you that your information will be safe with us.



For any queries, please DM us or call/text/WhatsApp in-
Baidehi : +91 96741 60128
Monimoyee : +91 98749 25982

24/06/2021

Thank you for joining us in our fight to break the stigma around human milk donation.
We are sure that a musical evening will take our Initiative a long way.

07/06/2021

07/06/2021

Begin the conversation about the necessity of breast milk donation. Let us end the stigma.

Read these guidelines compiled by Dr. Anuradha Bardia , as a start.

Drop us a DM/mail to know more.

Courtesy: Aishee, Samyabrata, Alinjar

03/06/2021

ধন্যবাদান্তে: West Bengal Breast Milk Resource Network (WBBMRN)

পোস্টার: অলিঞ্জর

অনুবাদ: শ্যামকণা, সোহম, সৌরভ

02/06/2021

We would like to take this opportunity to inform everyone intending to collaborate with us to carefully note that this Initiative was started by students, being developed by students and will always belong to students.

Thank you Fingers Crossed for your support till now and we wish you all the best.

29/05/2021

CLARIFICATION POST
TL:DR : Fake articles doing rounds

Hello Everyone,

We would like to bring to your kind attention that the two articles mentioned below by Anandabazar Patrika and Prohor.in respectively are the only two articles that we had consented to interview for- to maximize our reach among people and for authenticating our Initiative.
All the other articles doing the rounds contain misinformation and are being posted without our consent.
Kindly verify the news source before sharing articles regarding our initiative.

Also we would like to make this clear on our part :
WE ARE LARGELY A STUDENT INITIATIVE AND *NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY NGO OR ORGANIZATION* , though a few have extended their support to us for which we are grateful.

https://mepaper.anandabazar.com/imageview_56349_24538427_4_71_24-05-2021_8_i_1_sf.html

https://www.prohor.in/kolkata-students-creating-breast-milk-donor-data-bank-amid-pandemic-situation

28/05/2021

SPREADSHEET IS LIVE!

https://kutt.it/wbbmrn

Hello all,
On 20th of May, we launched our initiative to connect families of infants who have lost their mothers to Covid with mothers willing to donate breast milk to them, on a strictly voluntary basis, by following all required medical and legal procedures.
We are now happy to announce that our spreadsheet is finally live and we will be updating it regularly.
A few pointers-
1. Given the delicate subject at hand, we are sworn to protect the privacy of our donors and they have specifically requested us to mediate all calls between them and the families. In our spreadsheet, we have, therefore, only included their most essential details. They can be reached only through us- via phone, email, Facebook and Instagram.
2. Our doctors on call can be reached through the email ID provided in the spreadsheet or social media DMs. We will respond to all queries as soon as we can.
3. To protect legal interests- donors and families reaching us will need to provide necessary documents. Please reach out only if you agree to this. We cannot legally proceed without proofs of identity and medical history. We guarantee that your information will be safe with us.
Keep amplifying our cause and keep supporting us the way you have so far!

26/05/2021

We request you to follow government protocols and stay indoors.
We will fight this like we have been doing.
See you on the other side!
Stay safe, everyone! ❤️