"Milksharing on Facebook: one year later"

With the whirlwind of starting homeschooling and getting ready for Halloween, I completely forgot about our first anniversary!  October 28th marked the first anniversary of the launch of a global milksharing network on Facebook!!  I can NOT believe that it's already been 12 months- it seems like just weeks ago we were setting up pages and organizing hundreds of volunteers and pulling together press releases..... WOW!

Jodine's World's article  "Milksharing on Facebook: One year later" sums it all up perfectly!!

It's been a whole year since Emma Kwasnica's Facebook milksharing network  was launched. I can't believe it's been that long - seems like 10 minutes ago I was blogging about the six-month anniversary with my post, "A funny thing happened on the way to the milk bank."
Early on there were some bumps for global milksharing - understandable as 300 volunteer admins struggled to set up and run local communities using Facebook. Just as individuals struggle with the love-hate relationship with Facebook, so did the admins managing over a hundred community pages in 50 countries around the globe.
 Then there were some personality clashes - the original Eats on Feets Arizona community page founder parted ways with the global network after asserting her rights to her name. The global group became Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB) and while moms just kept right on offering up surplus milk and babes continued to receive it, the name change has hampered the growth of this network. There are still some Eats on Feets pages around and families new to milksharing can't always find their active local communities. And these days the Eats on Feets website has been hijacked by someone peddling breast implants and pregnancy diets, creating the potential for confusion for individuals and even reporters looking to do a feature on the one-year anniversary of the movement.
But Human Milk 4 Human Babies hasn't lost any steam and in September it sponsored the first World Milksharing Week with broad worldwide participation from Australia to Arizona.
 And although France joined the US and Canada with official warnings about the dangers of informal or Internet-based milksharing, three well-known academics published a supportive commentary in the International Breastfeeding Journal. "Milk Sharing: from private practice to public pursuit"  has become the most accessed item on the IBJ website this year. Authors James Akre, Karleen Gribble and Maureen Minchin argue the risks of milksharing are manageable and conclude: 

 

"this made-by-mothers model shows considerable potential for expanding the world's supply of human milk and improving the health of children." Akre, Gribble, Minchin, IBJ 2011

HERE to read the entire article on Jodine's World

So much has happened in the past year.  Human Milk 4 Human Babies has grown bigger and faster and busier than we ever thought possible at this time last year.  Mothers are coming together all over the world to create "communities" to support each other and insure that babies are getting the breastmilk they need to grow and be strong and healthy.  This is the Vision and Mission of HM4HB: to promote the nourishment of babies and children around the world with human milk. We are dedicated to fostering community between local families who have chosen to share breastmilk.

Our Vision

HM4HB is a global milksharing network, a virtual village, comprising thousands of people from over fifty countries. We are mothers, fathers, adoptive families, grandparents, childbirth and breastfeeding professionals, volunteers, supporters, donors, and recipients that have come together to support the simple idea that all babies and children have the right to receive human milk. We use social media as a platform for local families to make real-life connections and come together as sustainable milksharing communities where women graciously share their breastmilk. HM4HB is built on the principle of informed choice: we trust, honour, and value the autonomy of families and we assert they are capable of weighing the benefits and risks of milksharing in order to make choices that are best for them. We hold the space for them and protect their right to do what is normal, healthy, and ecological.

Breastmilk, the biologically normal sustenance for humankind, is a free-flowing resource and mothers of the world are willing to share it. Milksharing is a vital tradition that has been taken from us, and it is crucial that we regain trust in ourselves, our neighbors, and in our fellow women. Feeding any breastmilk substitute is not without risk and we support the families who know there is another option. We are the bridge that connects local families and brings them together again as milksharing communities. Indeed, the future of humanity depends on our return to sharing in a local and tangible way with one another.

We want milksharing and wet-nursing to be commonplace and babies to be fed at women's breasts whenever and wherever they need it. We dream of a world where mothers from previous generations pass on the tradition of breastfeeding and are a wealth of knowledge and support. We can forsee a time when women protect each other and help one another feed their babies so that every mother feels whole and no mother feels broken or that her body is failing her. We imagine a world where family members, friends, lactation consultants, doctors, and midwives do not hesitate to recommend donor milk when it is needed. We envision a future where families come together to raise this generation, and the next, by nourishing human babies everywhere with human milk and unconditional love.

Every person of the world is invited to join HM4HB. Page administrators, members, donors, recipients, and supporters are all important for building local, real-life communities where acquiring donor milk is no different than asking a trusted neighbor for an egg. We hope that one day in the future all babies in the world will thrive and grow on mother's milk, and HM4HB will no longer be needed because wet-nurses and breastmilk are available on every street, village, town, city, and island around the globe.

 For more information about Human Milk 4 Human Babies, please visit the website at: http://hm4hb.net/index.html  Visit the global fan page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hm4hb

Eats on Feets & Human Milk 4 Human Babies: my personal perspective

I'd like to tell you my personal story of how I joined a Global Milksharing Network: my experiences with the people involved and where I am today.

Months and months ago I heard about a baby that needed donated breastmilk.  The story of Camara and Anaya touch me deep inside and I immediately posted here on my blog about their urgent need and their heartrending story. Not long after that I came across stories of other babies that also needed donated breastmilk, like Kelley's baby, and the amazing story of baby Jayden. From then on I always kept my ears and eyes opened for  stories like theirs and tried to do what little I could to help moms find human milk for their babies.

October 2010 rolled around and a friend of mine Emma Kwasnica, fellow lactivist and natural childbirth advocate from Montreal Canada, put out a call that I couldn't answer fast enough.  She was creating a global network to support milk sharing.  Emma had known a midwife in Arizona named Shell Walker who had a small local facebook page called "Eats on Feets" that encouraged and supported milksharing in her neighborhood, and Emma asked Shell if she could use the catchy name for her Global Network, and thus Eats on Feets Global was born. I jumped up and jumped into the fray immediately and created the Eats on Feets- South Western Ontario page.

With in a couple of weeks we had over 100 local pages in 22 countries around the world, with more pages being created almost weekly. Emma lead us and kept us together and guided the creation of the network with her amazing personal strength and her vision. Our goal was to encourage informed choice on our pages, to be completely non-commercial, and to work with transparency and openness. It was exciting and exhausting all at the same time. While we were happy working away helping mothers who needed breastmilk find mothers with extra milk to give, problems were about to arise that we were not prepared for.

First of all Shell Walker and  her associate Maria Armstrong decided that our small FAQ, that we had written for the pages and the eof.org website, was not good enough and they pulled it down, leaving the admins and moms on our pages with out an info page to reference for questions.  This started much grumbling among the admins and when days stretch into weeks without the FAQ, the discontent started to spread.  Finally in February 2011 Shell and Maria presented their version of a FAQ to the Global Admin group.  This was not a FAQ, it was a reference manual over 50 pages long, with detailed medical information and claimed itself to be the ultimate manual on how milk sharing should happen between mothers.  The EOF Global admins were not happy and believed that this reference manual would open up the network to liability issues and most of the admins were not comfortable with handing over medical information when we ourselves are not medical professionals. When admins came to the Global group to try to discuss their misgivings about the manual and ask for changes to be made, they were ignored by both Shell and Maria. In response to this, a group of us came together to write a simple FAQ that the EOF Global Admins would be comfortable with using.  We worked for 3 days solid, night and day to get it done.  During this time things in the EOF Global admins group deteriorated significantly and many of us started to seriously worry about the future of working with Shell and Maria when they were incapable of listening to the admins and daily changed their mind about all sorts of fundamental ideals about the network and where it was heading.

Then the shocker came, in the form of a mass email from Shell Walker to all the EOF global admins.  Shell grandly announced that SHE was trademarking the name "Eats on Feets" and had created "terms of use" for all the admins to follow.  She buttered us up by saying that the pages were our own to keep and to run, but the small print stated that she had the over all power of veto and could take our pages away from us at her discretion.  The Global admins were shocked and outraged at this announcement. Shell did not ask any of us for our opinion, she didn't involve any of the admins in her decision. There was no transparency. Further, they made changes to the eof.org site that included deleting Emma's name completely, naming Maria as the goto person for the creation of new pages, and stated that admins were now "breastfeeding educators" though almost none of us have any training or credentials to claim that.  I was shocked and to be frank, completely freaked out by everything that was happening. 

On March 2nd 2011 Emma, myself and a group of admins made the final decision that we could no longer align ourselves with Shell Walker and her companions, and could no long work under the trademarked name of "Eats on Feets" and it's Terms of Use. At this point we moved forward and changed the name of our global network to Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global Network.  Of the 300 admins that made up the global milksharing network, 270  decided to rename their pages to Human Milk 4 Human Babies, and approx 20 admins choose to keep their pages named Eats on Feets and to stay with Shell Walker's TOU.

The first thing we did was to create new HM4HB pages to replace our old EOF pages- unfortunately Facebook does not allow pages to change their name after they have 100 "likers".  We announce to our members and "Likers" that we had changed the name of our network and that we were moving to our new pages. A couple of days later all the former EOF admins received a second email from Shell trying to convince admins to stay with her.  Then came the shock that none of us could believe was possible.

On March 7th, I was desperately trying to help a mom who had just posted on my SW Ontario EOF page find lactose and gluten free breastmilk.  I got up from my computer for a few moments only to return to discover that my eof page was gone.  Completely.  I cursed Facebook, thinking it just a glitch, I sent messages to the other admins on our page.... then I received the dreaded message from Facebook, the EOF SWOntario page had been deleted: "We have removed or disabled access to the following content that you have posted on Facebook because we received a notice from a third party that the content infringes or otherwise violates their rights" Over 60 eof pages were deleted that day, leaving hundreds of babies without the milk they desperately needed. My self and my fellow admins did not receive any warning. Needless to say the grief and anger of the HM4HB admins was all encompassing. We raged and we sobbed. But our resolve to build Human Milks 4 Human Babies into an amazing milksharing global network grew immensely, and our disgust for Shell Walker and her co-conspirators knew no bounds. But deleting pages wasn't enough for Shell and Maria, they also hijacked pages, kicked out the local admins and took them over- Israel, Tasmania, Hungary, Singapore and Nederlands ... and others were stolen from their proper admins and are now being run - in english- by people who've never even stepped foot in those countries or have any knowledge of their customs or language.

Shell Walker and Maria Armstrong have done everything in their power to rewrite the history of EOF, including deleting Emma's involvement completely, and insisting that they are the "Same" global network. They are not. They are a few people out of the network that decided to keep on using the name "eats on feets", the real network is made up of the 270 admins that changed names to re-create a truly global network. Shell and Maria have repeatedly changed their mission, restructured their organization and just recently announced that they will be involved in commercial endeavors with a company in Britain. They have no concept of Informed Choice, do not work even slightly through transparency- for their admins nor the people that look to their pages to find human milk. They say that "it's all for the babies" and that the mothers "own" the eof pages, yet they have repeatedly put their own interests before getting human milk to the babies that need it.

Shell and Maria will tell you that none of this is true, but the former eof admins have proof- we have screen shots of all the conversations, we have all the messages and emails that went back and forth between Shell and some of the admins, we have every single post that Shell and Maria made right from the very beginning of the network. For some of this info feel free to visit Eats on Feets- the ugly truth.  

We have the Truth.

...we have the global network.

And we HAVE created an outstanding milksharing network. Emma put together a group of twenty admins to be Peer Helpers to help run the various ad hoc groups and discussions on consensus, governance, and to create our brilliant Mission and Vision Statements. We do all our work with full transparency and run on consensus so that every Admin in our network can have their say. We are getting human milk to human babies every single day all over the world. We now have over 300 admins, in over 60 countries all over the world.

We Rock.

Introducing "HM4HB", formerly Eats of Feets Global milk sharing network.

In a grand announcement  a few months ago, the Toronto Star published an article  "Pediatricians call for breast milk banks across Canada".  Applause, yes applause.  It's a wonderful thing that the media has jumped on the band wagon and is making public announcements like this, I mean,  any publicity is good publicity KWIM? Horray for Breastmilk!
But I have to admit that it irks me.  Mothers and Doctors, like Dr. Jack Newman, have been crying out for Milk Banks for Years- YEARS!!!! Not only that, but Canada does have a Milk Bank in Vancouver BC... a milk bank that they have been trying to close down for years!!  I wrote an article on the topic just a couple of months ago: Canada Needs Milk Banks!!!


 Yes, there is absolutely no doubt that Canada needs Milk Banks, and lots of them.  But if they are run like the BC Womens Hospital Milk Bank, keeping the liquid gold just for themselves, then how will that help babies in need in outlying communities?  And what about those "babies in need"?  The article in the Toronto Star yesterday states:

The milk, which would be pasteurized with the same heating method dairies use, would go mainly to two groups of infants, Unger says.
“There would be the really, really pre-term babies, the extremely low birth weight babies,” she says. “The other group of babies are the group who need surgery on their bowels.”

While no one would argue that these fragile infants desperately need breastmilk, ALL babies deserve breastmilk.  What about babies who's mothers are not physiologically capable of producing enough milk to exclusively breastfeeding their babies?  What about other fragile babies? What about older infants that are absolutely reliant on breastmilk to survive?  Infants like Anaya who are extremely ill and intolerant of ANYTHING except breastmilk?

ALL BABIES DESERVE BREASTMILK!


Breastfeeding is NOT best, Breastfeeding is Normal.  But what if you are one of the (Hypothesized) 3% of women who are physically unable to produce enough milk to exclusively nurse their babies?  What if you have done everything possible to build and boost your milk supply.... and you still can't produce enough milk to exclusively breastfeed your baby?  What then?
For many mothers they had only one option... until now.  NOW there is a global movement going on, a movement to get breastmilk to every baby in need through milk donations. It's called Milk Sharing.


Right here in Ontario there are currently no milk banks. So for a baby to receive breastmilk, the only way is from their mother, or through donations from other breastfeeding mothers. Hence the launch of  "Human Milk 4 Human Babies". We are here to help families that need milk, find families that are willing to donate milk.


Originally we started a global breastmilk sharing network called "Eats on Feets Global" back in Oct 2010.  Breastfeeding and childbirth activist Emma Kwasnica decided to launch a global network to help mothers who needed breastmilk find mothers who had breastmilk to spare.  In the summer of 2010 a Phoenix based midwife Shell Walker started a  local community page on Facebook dedicated to milk sharing. Emma, an advocate for informed choice, who was already connecting people around the globe who wanted to share milk via her personal profile page, approached Shell and asked to use her name "Eats on Feets" for the Global milk sharing network. Permission was granted by Shell  and Emma launched Eats On Feets GLOBAL. This network grew quickly to over 100 communities spanning the globe. 

Last week Eats On Feets GLOBAL changed its name to Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global Network. Within hours, donors and recipients were making matches on HM4HB. There are now 275 volunteers administering over 100 community pages in 42 countries. Donors and recipients are using the network to make matches literally every hour of every day.  For more information about the changes to the Global networks name please click HERE


Milk Sharing is not a new fad.  Milk sharing is as old as the human race and is still practised in societies where breastfeeding is the social norm.  Mothers have been nursing other babies since the beginning of time and babies have thrived.  All across the world mothers are forming impromptu "villages", caring and nurturing their children together,  caring for and helping each other, and nursing each others babies in an effort to provide healthy human food in a nurturing manner when it's needed.


 Every baby deserves human milk, we can't state that enough.  Sometimes we need to all pull together to make sure that no baby is left behind. Cows milk for baby cows, Human milk for baby humans.  It's really that simple.


 If you are a mom with a baby in need of breastmilk come to Human Milk For Human Babies and you'll find moms with milk to give.  If you're a mom that has breastmilk to give, come to HM4HB and you will find a mother in need of your generous donation.  It's all about getting Human Milk to Human Babies!!!