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Adhunika Prakash, a mother of two, started her breastfeeding support group on Facebook after her own struggle to find trustworthy advice.

Mumbai: Adhunika Prakash knows what she will do with the grant she has received from Facebook as one of 115 community leaders identified under a new initiative of the social media giant.

Her breastfeeding support group on Facebook, which is helping thousands of women overcome myths and hesitation surrounding the subject, needs to be taken to those in the grassroots who don’t know English and are not on social media, she told ThePrint.

An MBA graduate from Symbiosis Pune, Adhunika, 35, was one of 6,000 candidates from across the world who applied for the Facebook Community Leadership Program. Announced in February, the initiative is aimed at training, supporting and funding shortlisted social change-makers to amplify their impact.

The selected candidates, who hail from 46 countries, will receive grants of up to $1 million to further their causes.

Currently based in Bahrain, Adhunika has a son aged six and girl aged two.

The journey

When Adhunika first became a mother in 2012, she was in Ireland because of her husband’s job. She struggled to get information on breastfeeding from peers, and ended up joining a local support group.

This experience got her to realise the importance of robust community networks to guard and propagate crucial information, she said.

Also read: These Delhi women don’t shy away from breastfeeding in malls, metro or even Uber cabs

“When I was a new mom, I did not even know how long I can feed from one breast,” Adhunika added.

“Earlier, we used to live in communities and villages and there was a lot more talking and sharing of information. But, now we live more isolated lives,” she told ThePrint.

Four months after she joined the Irish group, Adhunika founded an Indian peer-to-peer support group.

Five years later, she heads a thriving support group, Breastfeeding Support for Indian Mothers (BSIM), for mothers looking for the same answers she once grappled with.

The group has 82,000 members today, with members not just from India, but the US, the UK and Australia.

The teachings

Adhunika told ThePrint that BSIM was just meant to offer advice and support, adding emphatically that the group did not prescribe, endorse or force any one parenting style.

“We don’t want to tell formula-feeding women that we are superior to them because we breastfeed,” she said. “We are only saying that if you want to do this, here is the information.”

BSIM is largely run through a carefully curated Facebook group, where new members are vetted by group administrators before they are admitted.

The pinned post sets out a list of dos and donts to keep the group focused on helping mothers and dodge the common social media headaches: Trolls, abuse, promotions, pornography and so on.

Once admitted, any member is allowed to post questions, information, and messages on the group, and address or comment on others’ posts. Adhunika has built a team of volunteers, who are categorised as administrators, moderators and peer counsellors.

Also read: Blood donation is praised but not breast milk donation. These brave Indian moms ask why

The administrators and moderators not only approve new members, but also keep an eye on the kind of information being shared on the group to separate myths from facts and ensure that no post is disrespectful or hurtful to anyone.

The peer counsellors help address specific questions.

The entire team, including Adhunika, works on a voluntary basis.

“One of the very striking features of BSIM is its tolerance towards different parenting styles and choices,” said Parigna Pandya, a BSIM administrator.

“We provide information and leave the choice to the parent,” she added. “As a person, I am not only respectful of various approaches that a parent brings to their family dynamics, but also welcoming of them.”

BSIM also maintains a crowdsourced list of breastfeeding-friendly paediatricians across geographies for members to consult. The organisation has also had meet-ups in a few cities, and now plans to induct and train leaders to conduct such interactions more efficiently.

The challenges

Across cultures, the most common question that BSIM has come across from new mothers is: “Am I producing enough milk?”

BSIM volunteers explain that self-doubt is no reason to start a child on formula feed, and that there are various factors one needs to analyse, such as wet nappy count and growth patterns, to determine this.

“We want mothers to know that breastfeeding is not impossible, most humans are designed to make enough milk for their babies,” said Sanyukta Bardhan, a moderator with BSIM.

Another challenge new mothers face, BSIM volunteers added, is being deprived of a say on how to raise their children.

“We try to tell the mothers that if someone is insisting on them using formula feed for their child, stand up to them,” said Adhunika, who is now a certified lactation educator and counsel.

“There are certain situations when formula feed is necessary, such as in delicate medical conditions, but sometimes family members recommend it only because of reasons such as ‘baccha patla dikh raha hain (the baby is looking thin)’,” she added.

BSIM particularly encourages breastfeeding in public places.

“Breasts have been over-sexualised. They are treated as a sexual organ rather than organs that provide milk to the baby,” said Adhunika.

“Many women, including me, are very shy,” she added, “But I felt liberated once I got over it.”

“We try to tell parents that they don’t have to be at home for the length of their breastfeeding journey,” she said.

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