About MIBFN

View the MIBFN Overview here and Fact Sheet here.

Statement on Who We Serve: MIBFN collaborates with organizations and individuals to bring about actionable, system-level changes that are centered on the diverse experiences of Michigan families with young children.

Mission: We advocate, educate, and community-build alongside families and organizations for the advancement of an equitable, just, and breastfeeding-supportive culture.

Vision:

We envision human milk feeding-supporters of every identity serving in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized folx, dismantling unjust and inequitable systems of oppression – white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.
We envision building new systems that support human lactation centered in equity and justice.
We envision the decolonization and reclamation of traditional birth, lactation and infant feeding cultural norms.
We envision Black joy and Indigenous communities thriving.

Working Core Values: Respect, Diversity, Listening, Learning, Planning, Transparency, and Community-Building

Service Model

Education: Increase diversity within the field of lactation and expand the scope of those who promote lactation in different settings to influence systemic change.

Goals:

Make breastfeeding education accessible and inclusive to encourage the broad base of community leaders who endeavor to become breastfeeding supporters.
Align with ongoing efforts that focus on issues of equity and justice within breastfeeding education.
Promote culturally-relevant breastfeeding research and lived experiences from community-rooted viewpoints.
Provide relevant and timely education on how to work toward eliminating the systemic and structural barriers that inhibit breastfeeding success.
Connect breastfeeding education with access to equitable and sustainable compensation that centers Black and Indigenous birth workers and breastfeeding supporters.

Success is:

Centering the expertise and lived experiences of community-rooted, clinically-skilled birth and breastfeeding supporters who reflect and represent the communities they serve to eliminate the current gate-keeping in lactation care.
A plethora of direct breastfeeding supporters – Breastfeeding Peer Counselors, Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselors, Community Health Workers, Certified Lactation Counselors, Village Breastfeeding Specialists, be International Board Certified Lactation Consultants, etc. – who are equitably employed within their communities and serving families.
A broad-base of people who understand their influence on breastfeeding outcomes – Employers, Child Care Providers, Judges, Jail Wardens, Educators, etc. – and who leverage their power to cultivate family-centered systems.

Advocacy: Advance policy and cultural strategies that center the most marginalized families, and make breastfeeding feasible for every birthing person in Michigan.

Goals:

Change systems, not families.
Serve alongside leaders and community advocates within systems, as a partner for breastfeeding-specific solutions.
Advance breastfeeding-supportive administrative and legislative policies.
Celebrate and hold accountable policy makers for their actions on issues that impact the feasibility of human milk feeding.

Success is:

Listening deeply to and centering the most marginalized families in all administrative and legislative policy advocacy strategy.
Ensuring young people are aware of and engaged in promoting human milk feeding as both a reproductive rights issue and as central to racial justice.
Building power collectively and increasing grassroots support for human milk feeding policies.
Securing financial and legal support for human milk feeding.

Community Building: Leverage our privilege and platform to bring resources, including equitable compensation, to community-driven breastfeeding support organizations.

Goals:

Serve in solidarity with identity organizations to center community-rooted, clinically-skilled birth and breastfeeding justice, ensuring folx are equitably compensated and honoring the traditional practices and legacy work of Black and Indigenous folx.
Work alongside geographic coalitions to center equity and justice and be actively anti-racist within their community organizations.
Serve alongside organizations with their advocacy and strategic planning, fund development, data and communications, project management and reporting and grant stewardship support.

Success is:

Communities across Michigan are served by folx that reflect their communities and have access to equitable compensation, support, resources, and amplification in the movement towards liberation through birth and breastfeeding justice.
Human-milk feeding supporters in every community organizing and advocating for systemic change across every city, county, region, and peninsula. We envision that identity organizations drive the needs, messaging, and priorities, and geographic coalitions will serve in solidarity with identity organizations.

Operational Integrity: Establishing the growth in our efforts at the speed of trust of the families and organizations with whom we serve.

Goals:

Continuously ensure our Commitment to Equity and Justice is operationalized, centered, and growing throughout all of our efforts.
Lead by example with other geographic coalitions and organizations in our efforts to ensure the folx most marginalized by current systems are centered in our efforts to build new systems while dismantling current systems of oppression including patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism.

Success is:

Establishing, growing, and maintaining an annual budget that prioritizes equitable compensation for all staff and contractual partners.
Investing at least 33% of all earned income each fiscal year in community-rooted, clinically-skilled lactation support programs that reflect, represent, and directly serve families in their community.
Growing the reach of the movement for breastfeeding equity and justice in Michigan – including establishing investments from foundations, public health and health care institutions, state and federal government, insurance providers, and individual donors.
Maintaining transparency of our progress – including programmatic and organizational financial records, progress against deliverables, outcomes, and partnerships – via our website, reports, and other communications channels.

Team Care: MIBFN is committed to consistent connection between and among team members. We are, as a statewide organization working remotely, passionate about bringing collaboration and camaraderie to fruition in order to fulfill our organizational mission, goals, and vision. To that end, we are working to foster equity in morale and job satisfaction.

Goals:

Comparable workloads
Communication with one another for connection, updates, and task implementation
Keeping the mission and work moving forward
Celebrating wins while holding space for losses
Preparation
Respect
Autonomy
Glimmers of humor and fun
Grace when we fall short of these values

Success is:

Processes and tools are in place and communicated in order for team members to keep the mission moving forward through their individual and collaborative work
Space and time being given to understand and incorporate new tasks, projects, and processes in order for team members to work autonomously and to the best of their abilities
Team members feeling a sense of belonging and safety in daily operations (meetings, email correspondence, text etc).
Team members believing that they have found a space where their position does not define them, but that the position contributes to each team member’s wholeness.
Staff feeling valued, celebrated, and supported in both day-to-day tasks as well as general life events
Conversations are centered around Respect, Diversity, Listening, Learning, Planning, Transparency, and Community Building

Statement on the language we use to reflect the gender-diversity of the families we serve: MIBFN recognizes the power of language as the foundation of ensuring the just, equitable treatment of birthing and lactating people. In our ongoing efforts to serve in solidarity with marginalized families as advocates, educators, and community builders, we are committed to using language that reflects, affirms, and fosters belonging across the wide range of gender expressions of the families we serve. To that end, terms we use include, but are not limited to:

Chestfeeding, body feeding, and breastfeeding
Human milk and breastmilk
Pregnant, birthing, and lactating persons
Non-lactating person, parent, partner
Families, parents, caregivers, mothers, and fathers

Where we can be specific about a particular person or family, we will describe their experience in alignment with their desires. And, where we are referencing a group, it is our intent to use terms that best reflect the diversity of that group. When we fall short, we invite your input at hello@mibreastfeeding.org.