When teaching a class to college students, IME: make it surprising to
them, and make it personal to them. These two things will begin to
make it important to them.
A Human Sexuality class is made up of students of many different
majors; try to appeal to a wide variety of interests:
Athletes (Michael Jordan was breastfed until he was 3 or 4, and his
mother says it's why he is the athlete he is)
Political & Human Rights Activists (see www.WABA.org.my &
www.ibfan.org ; ("Don't think of it as a woman's right to
breastfeed--think of it as a baby's right to eat." INFACT Ca)
Doctors (Health of the mother, health of the baby)
Environmentalists (Waste formula leaves behind)
Marxists (No Logo mention last week of Iraqis paying Nestle for lost
money of formula revenue)
Business majors (better performance and attendance of breastfeeding
working mothers and why: less illness, etc.)
Religion majors (Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, etc. were all breastfed)
Advertising, Marketing majors (Use IBFAN to explain how it is that
marketing of abm undermines breastfeeding)
Economists
Psychologists (IQ testing in infants higher)
Sociologists ("In Norway promotion of artificial infant feeding does
not occure and 98% of mothers leave hospital breastfeeding. After 3
months 90% are still doing so." www.ibfan.org)
Since it is a Human Sexuality class, and since some people see this as
only having to do with the body: Check out INFACT Canada for posters
with breasts: http://www.infactcanada.ca/HomeMain.htm. "The only food
group your baby needs" ; "Will work for food"; "Fast Food. Two
convenient locations.". Plus the ones with nurslings may apply above
to the different kinds of students: "Kids eat free" and "Sometimes it's
okay to suck up to the boss"' Consider putting up slides of these
posters.
Other ideas:
*Use shock value.
*Speaking of what DHA and AHA in Lipil are made from, have you seen
that commercial for orange juice with the guy making this really
disgusting beverage out of all the things that are high in vitamins and
minerals also found in orange juice? This would be a really
interesting thing to do in class---very demonstrative. A great great
way to start out class---include actual ingredients that go into
formula. Fish eyes and genetically-engineered soil fungus and meat and
cow's milk and massive quantities of sugar. Take little paper cups and
go around the room pouring the drink into their cups. Demand that
students pay you for this drink. See if anyone would be willing to
drink it. Then give them "as a prize" something that represents the
following: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea,
cancer, etc. Give a prize of a bumper sticker or button that says
"Human Milk for Human Babies" to the person who knows that these are
ACTUAL INGREDIENTS found in artificial baby milk.
*Comb through 101 Reasons to Breastfeed by ProMoM and INFACT Canada for
interesting tidbits.
*Famous people who were breastfed as children or who have breastfed
their children. I've seen this same idea used for people who were
vegetarians, born at home, etc. Include: Michael Jordan, Lucianno
Pavaratti, Pele, etc. See following links:
http://www.breastfeeding.org/bfacts/famous.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/5212/breastfeeding.html
www.ohd.hr.state.or.us/bf/celebrities.pdf (This one is called
Breastfeeding is Glamourous and includes quotes from famous people)
Point out that before abm was invented, breastfeeding was the NORMATIVE
behavior, so anyone born before then was breastfed (give a list of who
those people are). ("Nestlé claims that its founder, Henri Nestlé,
invented the world's first artificial infant food in 1867. By 1873,
500,000 boxes of Nestlé's Milk Food were sold in Europe, the United
States, Argentina, Mexico and the Dutch East Indies. Markets expanded
and other companies saw an opportunity. In 1998 it was estimated that
annual sales of baby milk were worth US$ 8 billion." www.ibfan.org)
Good luck! I'm anxious to hear how it goes!
Katie Bredbeck
mother & lactivist & former college teacher
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