MOBI: Past, Present and Future
MOBI stands for Mothers Overcoming Breastfeeding Issues. MOBI was first formed on Valentine's Day 1998 by Susan Chick together with three other mothers, first as an email group and then as a webpage. These four mothers felt unsuccessful breastfeeding their first bab(ies) and were surprised and comforted to find other mothers who'd had a similar experience.
Email groups were pretty fledgling at that time, before the huge conglomerates like Yahoo took them over. Slowly, more mothers began to join who also felt unsuccessful at breastfeeding. Then mothers with multiple problems who were currently trying to breastfeed started to join. An amazing thing happened. The mothers who had felt unsuccessful began to encourage the mothers who were trying. Advice and emotional support were shared. The mothers currently struggling with breastfeeding had a constant cheer-leading section, as well as professionals offering support.
Many of our new mothers succeeded in partially or fully breastfeeding. Just as importantly, those who did not succeed felt supported, understood, and not judged: they were part a community. At MOBI, we cheer when things go well for our mothers, and cry when they do not. The group is still that way today, but with hundreds of mothers and many professionals on board.
Beverly Morgan IBCLC joined MOBI within the first year. Her specialty, the nonverbal communication between mothers and their breastfeeding babies, was helpful to many who were trying to find a new rapport at the breast. Hilary Jacobson, a native of California who lives in Switzerland, with special training as a holistic lactation consultant, joined in early 2000. She brought her expertise in herbal and nutritional support.
At each time during MOBI's history, warm, articulate mothers joined who were involved in a complex range of issues. Through their lively participation they sustained the special atmosphere of our community. Many stayed for a year or more and participated on a daily basis, welcoming newcomers and providing information and support.
Of course, the mothers on MOBI also have local health care providers, or are referred to them for direct consultation. The internet cannot be a substitute for direct care. Many mothers also find support locally through La Leche League and other local sources.
MOBI continues to provide women with compassion and understanding, recognizing that their issues often involve concrete breastfeeding questions as well as emotional issues, such as helplessness, anger, and grief. We discuss issues that impact the baby, the mother, and also external circumstances and concerns. Mothers share frustrations and solutions. For example, challenges for babies might include suck/swallow/breathe coordination, untimely weaning, breast refusal, nursing strikes, teething, tongue-tie, colic, GERD-reflux, allergy, developmental delays, or neurological delays. Mother's difficulties include pain with breastfeeding (whether from chronic nipple pain, mastitis, or unknown reasons), getting a baby back to the breast, low or overabundant milk supply, building or maintaining a supply, using herbs and "mother foods" to support milk supply, overactive milk-ejection reflex, breast surgeries, re-lactation, postpartum depression, and endocrine imbalances such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), or insufficient glandular tissue (IGT). Mothers often need support while using breastfeeding devices such as a supplemental feeding device, nipple shields, finger or syringe feeding, or pumping. Mothers need emotional support when their expectations are not met. They may be grieving unexpected birth outcomes, and/or separation from their baby after birth, and be dealing with their feelings over unmet breastfeeding expectations compounded by a fussy baby, lack of sleep, lack of support, and worry about their babies.
Over the years, the mothers at MOBI would urge us to make our group more public so that more mothers could benefit. We were concerned, however, about our capability to respond to a higher influx of members. Most of our mothers received a lot of one-on-one support. It was difficult to see how we could enlarge the group and still offer the support of which we were proud.
Well, things develop as they do, and the group became better known as more mothers talked about MOBI on other parenting boards. To meet the higher influx of members we set up a welcoming team and team of moderators. MOBI Volunteers are preparing informational web pages on our most frequently discussed topics. We have also set up sister-groups for lengthy, in-depth topical discussion. The first two set up were PCOS-Breastfeeding and Breastfeeding-Grief. More groups are planned.
In early 2005, we had the idea of developing a non-profit to promote our concerns. We realized that in addition to wanting to help mothers overcome their breastfeeding issues, we would like to improve the conditions that led to the problems in the first place. For instance, PCOS (a hormonal imbalance that can lead to both low and high milk supply) is hereditary, but it can be triggered or exacerbated by lifestyle and diet. This means that an early recognition of our mother's situation could lead to their making changes to their lifestyle that better suit milk-production, even years before becoming pregnant.
While the concerns of breastfeeding are our focus, we wish to increase public awareness that breastfeeding problems commonly tie in to other concerns of both the mother and the baby. At MOBI, we have seen that babies who had problems breastfeeding frequently had a developmental or physical problem diagnosed later on. If a baby's breastfeeding problems were taken more seriously from the onset - problems with latching, swallowing, etc. - instead of just telling the Mom to give it up and bottle feed, more babies would profit through early intervention and appropriate therapy.
On the mother's side, rather than dismissing a mother's low supply and offering bottled milk as a solution, healthcare providers could address the issues behind the low supply - insufficient glandular tissue, anemia, hormonal imbalances, or other health issues. Then, even if the mother isn't able to breastfeed her current baby, at least the problem has been identified, the mother's health improved, and the mother can make peace with her disappointment.
In a larger sense, "MOBI" is about extreme problems that threaten the mother infant dyad at its core. The experience of breastfeeding represents the ideal of mothering and bonding. But MOBI mothers become strong through working through extreme situations. They become better mothers, regardless of how they feed. Our goal is to introduce mothers to a range of strategies for improving their experience as mothers so that they and their babies can have the most positive experience possible.
Keeping in mind that mothers and babies are ultimately about motherhood we decided to name our non-profit MOBI Motherhood International. In 2005, Susan Chick, Beverly Morgan, and Hilary Jacobson became the founders, and, together with a group of volunteers, are working to make MOBI Motherhood the best it can be.
On November 9, 2011 MOBI established a public Facebook page and continues to be a comfort and source of support for another generation of mothers.
On March 5, 2014 MOBI launched its updated and reformatted webpages. As is often the case a new mother saw the need and spearheaded the remodel. Moderator Adeline Letizia spearheaded the workgroup as a new look for the logo was chosen, and the many other decisions and details were taken care of. James Volpe, husband of a MOBI mother did the web design. Long time member and Moderator Caroline Bias helped with many of the final details and was there to bolster us up when we got bogged down at times.
In the final weeks before the prelaunch, Susan Chick, founder, and husband Michael Chick, as well as Bill Morgan, husband of co- founder Beverly Morgan spent hours helping to make it a smooth transition.
Email groups were pretty fledgling at that time, before the huge conglomerates like Yahoo took them over. Slowly, more mothers began to join who also felt unsuccessful at breastfeeding. Then mothers with multiple problems who were currently trying to breastfeed started to join. An amazing thing happened. The mothers who had felt unsuccessful began to encourage the mothers who were trying. Advice and emotional support were shared. The mothers currently struggling with breastfeeding had a constant cheer-leading section, as well as professionals offering support.
Many of our new mothers succeeded in partially or fully breastfeeding. Just as importantly, those who did not succeed felt supported, understood, and not judged: they were part a community. At MOBI, we cheer when things go well for our mothers, and cry when they do not. The group is still that way today, but with hundreds of mothers and many professionals on board.
Beverly Morgan IBCLC joined MOBI within the first year. Her specialty, the nonverbal communication between mothers and their breastfeeding babies, was helpful to many who were trying to find a new rapport at the breast. Hilary Jacobson, a native of California who lives in Switzerland, with special training as a holistic lactation consultant, joined in early 2000. She brought her expertise in herbal and nutritional support.
At each time during MOBI's history, warm, articulate mothers joined who were involved in a complex range of issues. Through their lively participation they sustained the special atmosphere of our community. Many stayed for a year or more and participated on a daily basis, welcoming newcomers and providing information and support.
Of course, the mothers on MOBI also have local health care providers, or are referred to them for direct consultation. The internet cannot be a substitute for direct care. Many mothers also find support locally through La Leche League and other local sources.
MOBI continues to provide women with compassion and understanding, recognizing that their issues often involve concrete breastfeeding questions as well as emotional issues, such as helplessness, anger, and grief. We discuss issues that impact the baby, the mother, and also external circumstances and concerns. Mothers share frustrations and solutions. For example, challenges for babies might include suck/swallow/breathe coordination, untimely weaning, breast refusal, nursing strikes, teething, tongue-tie, colic, GERD-reflux, allergy, developmental delays, or neurological delays. Mother's difficulties include pain with breastfeeding (whether from chronic nipple pain, mastitis, or unknown reasons), getting a baby back to the breast, low or overabundant milk supply, building or maintaining a supply, using herbs and "mother foods" to support milk supply, overactive milk-ejection reflex, breast surgeries, re-lactation, postpartum depression, and endocrine imbalances such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), or insufficient glandular tissue (IGT). Mothers often need support while using breastfeeding devices such as a supplemental feeding device, nipple shields, finger or syringe feeding, or pumping. Mothers need emotional support when their expectations are not met. They may be grieving unexpected birth outcomes, and/or separation from their baby after birth, and be dealing with their feelings over unmet breastfeeding expectations compounded by a fussy baby, lack of sleep, lack of support, and worry about their babies.
Over the years, the mothers at MOBI would urge us to make our group more public so that more mothers could benefit. We were concerned, however, about our capability to respond to a higher influx of members. Most of our mothers received a lot of one-on-one support. It was difficult to see how we could enlarge the group and still offer the support of which we were proud.
Well, things develop as they do, and the group became better known as more mothers talked about MOBI on other parenting boards. To meet the higher influx of members we set up a welcoming team and team of moderators. MOBI Volunteers are preparing informational web pages on our most frequently discussed topics. We have also set up sister-groups for lengthy, in-depth topical discussion. The first two set up were PCOS-Breastfeeding and Breastfeeding-Grief. More groups are planned.
In early 2005, we had the idea of developing a non-profit to promote our concerns. We realized that in addition to wanting to help mothers overcome their breastfeeding issues, we would like to improve the conditions that led to the problems in the first place. For instance, PCOS (a hormonal imbalance that can lead to both low and high milk supply) is hereditary, but it can be triggered or exacerbated by lifestyle and diet. This means that an early recognition of our mother's situation could lead to their making changes to their lifestyle that better suit milk-production, even years before becoming pregnant.
While the concerns of breastfeeding are our focus, we wish to increase public awareness that breastfeeding problems commonly tie in to other concerns of both the mother and the baby. At MOBI, we have seen that babies who had problems breastfeeding frequently had a developmental or physical problem diagnosed later on. If a baby's breastfeeding problems were taken more seriously from the onset - problems with latching, swallowing, etc. - instead of just telling the Mom to give it up and bottle feed, more babies would profit through early intervention and appropriate therapy.
On the mother's side, rather than dismissing a mother's low supply and offering bottled milk as a solution, healthcare providers could address the issues behind the low supply - insufficient glandular tissue, anemia, hormonal imbalances, or other health issues. Then, even if the mother isn't able to breastfeed her current baby, at least the problem has been identified, the mother's health improved, and the mother can make peace with her disappointment.
In a larger sense, "MOBI" is about extreme problems that threaten the mother infant dyad at its core. The experience of breastfeeding represents the ideal of mothering and bonding. But MOBI mothers become strong through working through extreme situations. They become better mothers, regardless of how they feed. Our goal is to introduce mothers to a range of strategies for improving their experience as mothers so that they and their babies can have the most positive experience possible.
Keeping in mind that mothers and babies are ultimately about motherhood we decided to name our non-profit MOBI Motherhood International. In 2005, Susan Chick, Beverly Morgan, and Hilary Jacobson became the founders, and, together with a group of volunteers, are working to make MOBI Motherhood the best it can be.
On November 9, 2011 MOBI established a public Facebook page and continues to be a comfort and source of support for another generation of mothers.
On March 5, 2014 MOBI launched its updated and reformatted webpages. As is often the case a new mother saw the need and spearheaded the remodel. Moderator Adeline Letizia spearheaded the workgroup as a new look for the logo was chosen, and the many other decisions and details were taken care of. James Volpe, husband of a MOBI mother did the web design. Long time member and Moderator Caroline Bias helped with many of the final details and was there to bolster us up when we got bogged down at times.
In the final weeks before the prelaunch, Susan Chick, founder, and husband Michael Chick, as well as Bill Morgan, husband of co- founder Beverly Morgan spent hours helping to make it a smooth transition.