Whilst sleep training is the dominant paradigm in western parenting, and has been for quite some time. It is historically and culturally, an anomaly. A blip on the radar of human existence. 
For good reason, since it goes against the biological norms of our species. 
If you have ever wondered how we got here, how sleep training came to be "required" to be seen as a "good parent", read on: 

Did you know that in tribal and traditional societies the minimum caregiver to baby ratio is 3:1? That’s considered vital for both baby’s development and mum’s health. 

Here in the west we often have to fight our spouses to even get a 2:1 ratio on the weekends and for a couple of hours in the evening. 

Our daycares are running a 1:4 ratio. Literally the opposite of what other “less civilised” cultures know is best practice. 

Science tells us that women need a full year to recover physically from pregnancy - not a traumatic birth, not a highly medicalised birth, not a cesarean. Just pregnancy. And yet we don’t even get a golden month. 

Our culture and our economy expect us to be back up and running within days of beith, even the major abdominal surgery that is cesarean, and not ask for help. Our sisters in America are often required to go back to work within days of birth. But even when we are lucky enough to have 12 months of paid maternity leave, we are still culturally conditioned to parent alone. 

We feel guilty asking our spouses to step up and pull their weight because they’re at work all day, (so their sleep and self-care needs are more important). We feel anxious asking friends and family for help because surely we should be able to do this, and besides asking people for favours all the time is putting them out. And that’s if we even have people to ask. Too many of us live too far away from family, (sometimes even from friends too) to have anyone to ask. Alternatively we’re the only ones in our families and friends who don’t sleep train or formula feed or whatever, and asking for help means subjecting ourselves to an endless litany of “you’re making a rod for your own back”s and “just give him a bottle, then you can rest” 

And then there’s our health providers. When we ask them for help, they too push sleep training, formula, and antidepressants. 

It’s no wonder that our society has created this false dichotomy that it’s either mum’s sanity or baby's. Sleep train or martyr yourself. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. 
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In October 2017 Forbes released an article entitled “Fed Is Best Foundation Says Says WHO Breastfeeding Guidelines Fail To Meet Human Rights Standards"

If your first encounter with the Fed Is Best Foundation was reading the Forbes article, you would probably come away agreeing that the WHO is being negligent and denying babies human rights. ​

So, you might be wondering if their claim is valid. 

Is the UNICEF/WHO focus on breastfeeding rates and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative putting babies lives at needless risk for the sake of politics?

What follows, is a three part series investigating the choices and policies of both the Fed Is Best Foundation and the Baby Friendly Hospital Innovative, looking at the failings and ethics of both sides.

Part 1 - Discusses who the Fed Is Best Movement are, how they began, who they align with, and what that suggests about their integrity. 

Part 2 - Focuses on what the Fed Is Best Foundation hope to achieve in their negotiations with the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative

And Part 3 - Looks at alternative approaches the Fed Is Best Foundation could take. 

All three cover various problems with the Baby Friendly Hospital Innovative, interspersed through the discussion wherever relevant. 

Finally I've included my first article on the Fed Is Best Foundation (Dehydrated Babies) for further background. 

Last week Forbes released an article entitled “Fed Is Best Foundation Says Says WHO Breastfeeding Guidelines Fail To Meet Human Rights Standards"

Just digest that for a minute because, that’s huge. 

That’s a really massive call.

And if your first encounter with the Fed Is Best Foundation was reading the Forbes article, you would probably come away agreeing that the WHO is being negligent and denying babies human rights. ​

So, you might be wondering if their claim is valid. 

Is the Unicef/WHO focus on breastfeeding rates and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative putting babies lives at needless risk for the sake of politics?
​

When thousands of women complain of the same side effects from their contraception; when business is considering adopting period leave; when maternal morbidity and mortality is rising in the USA and the western world has abysmal breastfeeding success rates, we have a much bigger problem than any of those issues individually suggest.