Every Ounce Counts, unless it's formula.

"If most new moms would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life,
it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year,
according to a new study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics."
- Study: Lack of breastfeeding costs lives, billions of dollars

In the state of Texas 78.2% of babies are breastfed at some point according to the CDC's Breastfeeding Report Card. This number meets the Healthy People 2010 goal and is above the national average of 73.9%. Louisiana and Alabama come in last at 49.1% and 48.3%, respectively. Utah and Oregon top the list with 92.8% and 91.4%. In sum, most women in Texas attempt to breastfeed their babies at some point.

When we look at the numbers for women who are still breastfeeding at six months, Texas falls below the Healthy People 2010 goal at 48.7%. The numbers are even lower when we consider those Texas women who are exclusively breastfeeding at six months--a mere 14.2%. This is especially worrisome considering that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that infants be breastfed exclusively for 6 months.

The Texas Department of State Health Services Women Infants and Children (WIC) is the overseeing government agency that supports women and their babies. The national WIC website describes their target population as "low-income, nutritionally at risk" women and children under five years old.

WIC recently launched an integrated social marketing campaign to encourage moms to breastfeed their babies, the Every Ounce Counts campaign. There are several components to this campaign including radio, outdoor, TV, and web. The image below is one of the outdoor advertisements. This particular one can be seen on South 1st Street.
The Every Ounce Counts campaign message seems to have a lot of supporters and supporting organizations. Although not specifically associated with the Every Ounce Counts campaign, an event to celebrate the Breastfeeding Awareness was held at City Hall in Austin. There was also a Flashmob that was organized by Central Texas Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies. Check out the video below. Skip to 4:00 to listen to the rap about why breastfeeding is important, and apparently, really hip.

Clearly, a lot of men and women think breastfeeding is important. Again, 78% of Texas moms attempt to breastfeed their babies at some point. Which begs the question: Why do they stop?

After doing research, the problem isn't getting women to try breastfeeding. The problem seems to lie in a woman's ability to keep breastfeeding . Then, wouldn't the more impactful message on women and babies health be to keep breastfeeding? This is an important distinction and a problem that requires a very different tactic than educating a woman on the benefits of breastfeeding. Lots of factors can discourage a woman from breastfeeding, all of which are complicated and nuanced.

The Every Ounce Counts campaign does a great job of making breastfeeding look pretty and sound really wonderful. For those women who are able to successfully and easily breastfeed their babies, Every Ounce Counts stands as a validation point that they are doing the right thing, that their baby will be a rocket scientist, and that they will lose that baby weight if they just keep nursing.

Every Ounce Counts outdoor ads, radio, and TV spots don't prepare women for the problems that breastfeeding can bring, for the inconvenience, or any tactics for overcoming those real obstacles for the greater good of your baby. For that information you have to go to the Every Ounce Counts website which provides an inclusive and helpful troubleshooting section as well as links to get personalized help from a lactation consultant. This is a crucial piece of moving the needle on improving continued breastfeeding rates through six months.

The CDC gives some outlines of how social marketing can effect breastfeeding attitudes but not how social marketing can work to change persistent breastfeeding rates until six months of age. It should be said that perhaps the Every Ounce Counts campaign was not ever intended to focus on keeping women breastfeeding or provide practical advice on how to do so. Perhaps the goal of WIC is to increase the percentage of babies that are ever breastfed to 100%.

It just seems that to make the greatest social impact on the lives of small babies and women in Texas, social marketers must also understand that scientific data and numbers behind the social problem and then make tough decisions about target audience and on where their talents can change the most, for the most good. I do not think it is sufficient for social marketers to seek to change attitudes, social marketers must seek to change behavior.

I'll leave you with this for levity: