Apple Dumplings

AIMS Journal 2013, Vol 25 No3

Virginia Howes shares her breastfeeding video

Making breastfeeding trendy, fun and glamorous, this video aims to promote and normalise breastfeeding. It is a catchy song; the lyrics are all slang words for breasts.

The video includes young mums dressed in sassy burlesque costumes dancing a glamorous and innocently funny routine. Breastfeeding mothers and babies from all over the country turned up on the day to give support and are featured in the video. I hope to dispel the myths and make breastfeeding an exciting and womanly thing.

As we live in a celebrity-dominated society the idea was to tap into celebrity culture and I thought of none other than Big Brother winner Brian Belo. I thought that Brian would bring comedy, youth and words for breasts (for didn’t he have a task to name as many as he could in the diary room?) to the video.

Most women want to breastfeed, a fact that is evidenced by the number s of women who initiate it, yet drop-off rates are high in the early days and weeks following birth. It may be that for some women social conditioning dominates biological instinct or they may encounter problems, get little support and eventually resort to using bottles and formula, which has long-term health consequences and links to obesity.

There is a feeling among professionals that many young women regard breastfeeding as a middle-class activity, done by older, somewhat elitist or hippie-like women and while there are many ways to reverse opinion, breastfeeding could benefit from attempts to make it attractive to women. What better way to appeal to young women and get their attention than to make breastfeeding attractive, trendy and fun and to tap in to the celebrity glamorous culture?

Perhaps we will make Apple Dumplings a number one hit ... or at least a YouTube viral. Watch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8tsHyJaCI.

Virginia Howes