The Scariest Pro-Breastfeeding Video For Black Moms, Like, Ever

I mean, I’m trying really hard to focus on what’s important about this video. You score with me every time if you’re encouraging mothers to feed their newborns naturally through breastfeeding and if that message acknowledges the unique challenges African American mothers face when deciding whether to give their babies the breast or a bottle, you stay Charlie Sheen #winning in my book. But this video right here? With a talking baby sporting NeNe Leakes-sized chompers?

I can’t.

Everything this sweet little baby is saying in this video (see below), created as part of Louisville’s Healthy Hometown initiative to get more black moms breastfeeding, is totally on point: she’s reminding moms that breastfeeding is healthier for babies and telling them, too, that the “it’s nasty” stigma surrounding breastfeeding needs to stop, for the sake of our children. And kudos to whomever came up with the idea of totally biting those super cutie eTrade commercials with the talking babies who make big moves on the stock market from the confines of their cribs and high chairs. But for real, though, the execution is just… off. The idea of this baby drawing milk from my breasts with her full set of grown woman teeth that, as Frugivore points out, can chew up steak and potatoes and be brushed and flossed afterward, makes me want to clutch my boobies really tight and buy stock in Lasinoh. It looks like it would hurt. Like it would tear my nipples to shreds.

I’m guessing that’s not the message the Healthy Hometown initiative was going for when they sought to put out the call for more black moms to breastfeed in their city, where breastfeeding, particularly amongst African American mothers, is low. But two thumbs up to them for trying, huh? Bless their hearts. (To see the full set of Louisville’s videos, check them out over at Elita Kalma’s Blacktating, where she states an eloquent case for why the videos, even with their imperfections, are full of awesome goodness.)

RELATED POSTS:

1. Dear Michele Bachmann: Shut Up About Black Moms and Breastfeeding
2. Nipples and Ninny: An African-American Mom’s Breastfeeding Journey
3. Beyonce Breastfeeds Blue Ivy: Can White Advocates Give Black Moms Our Breastfeeding Victory?
4. Black Breastfeeding 360°: Celebrating A New Resource For African American Moms

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Denene Millner

Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.

10 Comments

  1. I don’t understand why the teeth were necessary. They could have gotten the same point across using a talking baby with no teeth, looking absolutely adorable like the baby does at the end of the video. Maybe with this technology, you would have needed to find an adult with no teeth to pull it off. Actually, I know some of those, too!

  2. Those e*trade commercials creep me out too. That said, my son has a full set of teeth (well, the last 3 are coming in now–he’s 17 months) and it doesn’t hurt. Sure, you get bit a couple of times while you teach them not to do it, but once they learn, the tongue covers the bottom teeth, so it shouldn’t hurt. It’s basically the same lesson that you have to teach a newborn…how to latch properly. But what’s weird about this commercial is that there aren’t any bottom teeth. Why does she only have a WHOLE LOT of top teeth? FREAKY!

  3. OK, I looked again (and again–its a trainwreck). The baby does have bottom teeth, but I guess her top lip is just pulled back through most of the talking so you can REALLY see the top teeth. Still disturbing…

  4. Great video, scary teeth

  5. I love the message, but like everyone else am super creeped out by the huge teeth on the baby. I am especially creeped out as a mother who breastfed her twins for 22 months and had to stop due to one of the wee ones biting me. Hard. Shudder. Great message though.

  6. This frightened me. Great point, but scary video. Doing without the teeth could work.

  7. Yeah I missed the message because I was trying to move my breasts before I got bit by those choppers that look like they could shoot through the screen…OUCH!!!

  8. Considering I am in day 4 of breastfeeding a newborn and my nipples are KILLING me, I chose not to traumatize myself at this moment. I’ll bookmark though and revisit 🙂

    • Denene@MyBrownBaby

      CONGRATULATIONS, GRADMOMMY!!!!! I’m so happy for you! Tossing up glitter and confetti for the new addition!

  9. This post was hilarious! Had me laughing out loud. But to be honest, I’m not sure I would have noticed the teeth if I were just watching the spot out of the blue. I guess the awful eTrade babies have prepared me for funky-mouthed babies.

    I love this effort!

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