An animated educational rap-video about breastfeeding

Babies reach their genetic potential when the correct building blocks are provided.

It is believed today that human breast milk provides the most correct building blocks for developing brain cells and nerves. Human babies are meant to be light weight and carried for at least 18 months after birth.

Cow's milk is suitable for the development of the calf who needs to grow rapidly and has to be able to run with the herd immediately after birth. It does not need to have the amino acids that are necessary for brain development.

In the Scandinavian countries, 97% of all mothers initiate breastfeeding.

When advice givers give correct advice about breastfeeding and do not promote artificial infant milk, the rate of breastfeeding is usually in the 90% range.

The US Surgeon General's Goal for Healthy People in 2010 was that 75% of women in the United States be breastfeeding at hospital discharge and 50% be breastfeeding at six months.

At the time the Breastfeeding Rap was developed, in 1999, a survey showed that the prevalence of breastfeeding in the US hospitals reached only 67% and breastfeeding initiation only occurred in 50% of the mothers who were African American, under 20 years old, or with only grade school education Although there had been some improvement, the statistics showed that it was education and peer support that made the difference.

The Latino population has a 69% initiation rate.

The college educated group regardless of ethnic origin has an 80% initiation rate.

It was projected that by the year 2050 the population of the United States would have increased 49%: from 293 million to 437 million people. 143 Million babies were projected to be born in the next 50 year. I asked myself how I could help them reach their genetic potential and prevent the spending that would be necessary if they didn’t.

What is the problem?
On our planet, according to World Health Organization statistics, over four thousand babies died each day from malnutrition or diarrheal disease because mothers chose to bottle-feed. In the United States, 500 children died each year because of diarrhea caused by artificial infant milk. Thousands of American babies suffered with otitis media and upper respiratory tract infections because of artificial milk's seeming inability to protect babies from disease. Louis Pasteur in 1910 invented the pasteurization of cow’s milk. Unsuspecting families thought, therefore, that it was OK to feed it to babies. At the time, if you were wealthy, another woman would breastfeed your baby. So when artificial milk became the norm. Bottles were the way to go. Women were now free to enter the workplace and didn’t realize the contraceptive role of breastfeeding which spaces babies about two years apart. So women started getting pregnant more often and babies health became very poor as well as women’s health.

Women had been made to feel that their milk was insufficient to meet the needs of their babies and that only by supplementing with artificial infant milk, or completely feeding their babies with this milk, would their babies be healthy.

(You can’t fault Big Business entirely, because for many years people didn’t know how the breast worked, and how important breastmilk was to infant health. So, some artificial milk companies thought they were “Saviors” and didn’t realize the harm they were doing. In addition, Freud is given some of the blame because he suggested that breastfeeding was somehow a sexual behavior. So that information was blown out of proportion by puritanical people at the time. So you have Pasteurization and puritanical misinterpretation and that leads to poor health outcome for babies and moms. Statistically teen-age women had been shown to be particularly at risk of choosing artificial infant milk because of lack of education. They were particularly vulnerable because of their need to be accepted by their peers. Why did they choose to bottle-feed? One of the reasons is that adolescent women made their choices based on commonality: they did not see their peers and idols breastfeeding on TV, in commercials, in film and in music videos. They wanted to do what their peers did. Statistically, in this country, only 50% of African American women choose to breastfeed their babies, whereas 69% Latino and 70% of Caucasian women choose to begin breastfeeding. According to a Ross Laboratories survey, lack of education and therefore lower income was associated with even further drops in the incidence of breastfeeding. This put adolescent inner-city women at greater risk of losing out on the advantages that breastfeeding could give to their health and to their babies' health. And it increased the amount of money taxpayers had to pay for a population that is mentally and physically under par. According to one study published in the British Medical Journal "The Lancet": breastfeeding was known to increase IQ points significantly with each month that a baby was breastfed. Further studies showed that it was not breastmilk that helped increase IQ but it was Artificial Infant Milk was not capable of helping a baby reach its genetic potential because it did not have the correct building blocks for brain and nerve development. There are other reasons many women did not breastfeed: free "formula" was available from food give away programs which caused the baby to go longer between feedings. This caused the baby to go longer between feedings and thus to “cue” the breast less often to make milk. (It is the rolling compression of the tongue of the Areola as the baby sucks and swallows that tells the breast to “make milk – there is a live baby here that is asking for it”. (It takes three days for the breast to increase it’s milk production. That is why babies have “three day “frequency periods” in which they want to “nurse” more often. They are cuing the breast to make more milk as they grow and need more milk. In addition, there was the social pressure of disapproval caused by old-time puritanical views and the disapproval of uninformed fathers who were afraid that breastfeeding would interfere with sex.

How to solve it:
I had the idea of doing a musical rap on the subject of breastfeeding because it seemed that that was a “language” that teenagers understood. I had already co-authored a rap protesting mom’s rights called “Just a Teenager who’s older than you”. (http://www.slecorp.com/justateenager/justateenager.mp3 ) Together with teenage girls, we performed this rap all over the Los Angeles area.

We all understand the power of comedy and of a jingle to influence people to choose one product over another. In this case we are using what is called a "hook": a simple concept repeated over and over again to a rhythm to drive home that young hip mothers breastfeed, the fathers of their babies are supportive and the baby is much healthier.

What it will show and who will be in it:
The video will show young women being assertive and fathers being enthusiastic about their babies being breastfed. There will be, of course, a baby, a typical "mall chick", a lactation consultant, and cast of supporting neighbors.

Funding

My mother, Moya Lear, was very supportive of this and put in her will $50,000 towards the development of this rap. However this money could not go into my 501c3 charity Lear Charitable Foundation for some reason. So, since I had given 5% of the rap ownership to the Lactation Institute, where I first got the idea of doing the rap, in a course they taught on promoting Breastfeeding, my mother’s trust had to give the money to the Lactation Institute. When I hired Warner Brothers animation team to animate the rap into a video, hired actors, and got my son to write the music, it came time to pay them. I expected to use the money that had been donated to the Lactation Institute. Unfortunately, my mother hadn’t foreseen that these people would insist that I had to give up my 95% ownership of the rap to the Lactation Institute for them to pay the animators. I was shocked and horrified that these women, who had been friends up to that point, would do this to me. At the time, I didn’t have the money to get legal help, and because these animators and my son needed to be paid, I “took one for the cause” and signed away my rights to this great project for which I personally had paid $150,000 to develop. Sigh… Later an attorney, who made friends with these people, worked a deal where we would each have 50% of the rap. But that meant that for each decision, we would both have to be in agreement. (It is hard to agree, or even talk to people who have robbed you.) So, although there are physical copies of this rap that were to be sold by both the Lactation Institute and by me, none of this ever happened. BUT someone posted this video on YouTube and you all can see it for FREE!!! So there is a silver lining to this story. So this video can be seen on the internet, played in health education courses at schools, and broadcast via satellite across all cultural boundaries. English is a language that most young people around the world have learned because of the lyrics of popular songs, so it is probably not necessary to translate the rap. The text of this video is in English and has had an enormous influence on teenagers who have seen it and are, today choosing how they are going to feed their babies based on what their peers are doing.

The Authors of the Rap were:

Shanda Lear-Baylor,


Suzy Miller, co-author wrote raps for Whoopie Goldberg, a NBC prime time show, "A Different World", corporations including Cybase and Enterprise Rent-a-car and others. She co-authored "Just A Teenager Who Is Older Than You." Suzy Miller is a nationally recognized choreographer with Film, TV, Video and Stage credits. Here is a link to her “About” page on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pg/suzymillerdance/about/?ref=page_internal

Various others have contributed to the rap. They include Pamela Carrington-Tribble, Andy Howe, Alvin Starks and Roslyn Lee.

Music


The music has seen three versions. The rap was first developed in 1992. Since then what is considered "current" has changed. So the music has had to change and the earlier composers, to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude, are now busy with other projects.

1. The first version was by Andy Howe.

2. The second  composer of the music was Stan Scates, of Urban Street Studios. Music producer, and celebrated composer of hip-hop and rap for today's market.

3. The current version of the music is by Valente Bertelli.

Cast


Roslyn Lee: Kanisha, the mom

Tip Toe: Antquan, the dad

Aisha Corpus: Nicole, the "mall" chick

Marylin Lee: the lactation consultant

John Jr: The baby

 


Shanda Lear-Baylor,  IBCLC, CLE,
 
Direct line: (949) 722 7757
shanda@breastfeedyababy.org
 
Media contact:
Media@breastfeedyababy.org
 
Licensing information:
license@breastfeedyababy.org
 
Mailing address:
Lear Charitable Foundation
Attn: Breastfeed Ya Baby Department
7215 Garden Grove Blvd.
Suite C
Garden Grove, CA 92841-4221

Making a change in the quality of life for those who really need to experience the "milk of human kindness"

 

10.

Breastfeeding, the one time it's OK to suck-up to the boss.

9.

Breastmilk, fresh everyday and needs no regulation by FDA.

8.

Breastmilk has no expiration date.

7.

Breastfeeding, the only union that offers security, no dues, and great benefits.

6.

Unlike bottles and pacifiers, nipples don't fall on the floor.

5.

Baby never needs to pack a lunch.

4.

Breasts don't require child proof caps.

3.

Breastmilk containers come in a beautiful variety of shapes and sizes.

2.

Breastmilk is always the perfect temperature and available at two locations near you.

1.

Breastmilk, better than any udder milk.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media contact:
Media@breastfeedyababy.org
 
Licensing information:
license@breastfeedyababy.org
 
Mailing address:
Lear Charitable Foundation
Attn: Breastfeed Ya Baby Department
7215 Garden Grove Blvd.
Suite C
Garden Grove, CA 92841-4221