Isla has become an ambassador for Save The Children’s new campaign around breast milk! Isla travelled to Brazil to see how they manage breast milk supplies and how they use it to save the lives of newborns. She has also appeared on the Aussie TV show Sunrise to promote the cause. Read all about it, plus find photos and videos for the campaign within this post. It’s wonderful to see her working with this charity, and you know she’s picked a cause close to her heart.
Superfood for Babies: Breastfeeding Report
All women deserve the support they need to breastfeed, if they choose to. Breastfeeding has important benefits for moms and babies everywhere, and can literally save lives in the developing world. Save the Children’s new report, Superfood for Babies, estimates that 830,000 babies could be saved if all women breastfed in the first hour of life. Exclusive breastfeeding for six months could save even more lives. Yet, the report explains, moms face four significant barriers to successful breastfeeding. They are cultural and community pressures, the health worker shortage, lack of maternity legislation, and inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes. Read the press release.
Tell Secretary Kerry to Fight for Newborn Nutrition
Breastfeeding is the world’s most powerful defense when it comes to saving children’s lives. It offers babies the best possible protection against malnutrition, which leads to thousands of children dying every single day. Yet women who wish to breastfeed often face major barriers.
All mothers should be able to make the choices that will give their babies the best start in life. All babies deserve to reach their full potential through good nutrition in the critical 1,000 day window from their mom’s pregnancy to their second birthday.
Families in impoverished communities around the world have been getting that support thanks in part to the 1,000 Days Call to Action – an initiative led by the US government that is set to expire in the coming months unless caring people like you speak out.
Vulnerable children need you to be their voice and tell the Secretary of State, John Kerry to demand renewal of the 1,000 Days Call to Action! Sign our petition.
Watch the video with Isla Fisher
Actress Isla Fisher travels with Save the Children to Brazil to see how breastfeeding support is saving lives.
How Health Workers are Helping
Find out how Desita, a new mom and local health worker in Indonesia, is helping other mothers learn to breastfeed. Read the blog.
More About the Report
We look to corporations which manufacture baby formula to increase efforts to promote early breastfeeding. Here are some of their responses to our report.
Statement from the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI)
“The current state-of-the-science supports the American Academy of Pediatrics’ position on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk, which reads in part ‘The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirms its recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced, with continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or longer as mutually desired by mother and infant.’ ILSI applauds Save the Children’s efforts to help families worldwide achieve this important goal.”
Isla Fisher joins Victoria Beckham in showing her support for Save The Children’s breastfeeding campaign
Isla Fisher joins Victoria Beckham, Myleene Klass, Donna Air and Mariella Frostrup by showing her support for Save the Children’s 95 Babies breastfeeding campaign.
The lives of 95 babies could be saved every hour – 830,000 a year – if new mothers around the world breastfed immediately after giving birth, according to a report from Save the Children.
Taking to twitter today to share her support, Victoria Beckham wrote: As a mother I know how crucial the first hour of a baby’s life is. This is why I’m supporting Save the Children.’
Save the Children’s new ambassador, mother of two Isla Fisher, recently visited Brazil as part of the organisation’s campaign. Her father was a senior executive of Save the Children 30 years ago, so felt it was only natural to carry on the tradition.
The country realised very early on what a brilliant natural medicine breastmilk was and as a result, thirty years on, they have halved the infant mortality rate. There are milk banks in 210 hospitals across the country, and even fire fighters and ambulance crews help out by collecting and delivering breast milk.
Receiving a mother’s first milk within the ‘power hour’ will kickstart the child’s immune system, making a newborn three times more likely to survive and if the mother continues feeding for the next six months, then a child growing up in the developing world is up to 15 times less likely to die from killer diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.
According to the charity, there has been enormous progress in reducing child mortality, but more could be done if mothers were encouraged to breastfeed.
‘Despite the benefits of breastfeeding being widely known in the developed world, and it being a free, natural way to protect a newborn baby, too little attention is being paid to help mums breastfeed in poorer countries,’ said Justin Forsyth, Save the Children’s chief executive.
Join Victoria Beckham, Myleene Klass, Donna Air and Mariella Frostrup and show your support on Twitter by tweeting at #firsthour.
Isla Fisher Helps Spread the Word About Saving Children
Isla Fisher is the new ambassador for the organization Save the Children. The mother of two joins Victoria Beckham, Myleene Klass, Donna Air, and Mariella Frostrup in the fight to reduce child mortality rates.
According to the charity, 830,000 babies a year around the world could be saved if new mothers breastfeed right after giving birth.
Fisher, 37, traveled to Brazil for the charity’s campaign. Brazil has helped lower the infant mortality rate by discovering how breast milk is an amazing natural medicine. Infants who receive breastmilk within the “power hour” are three times more likely to survive, immediately boosting their immune systems. In developing countries, children who’s mothers breastfeed them for the next six months are 15 times less likely to die from pneumonia, diarrhea, and other deadly diseases.
Brazil has set up milk banks in 210 hospitals throughout the country. Fire fighters and ambulance crews have also been collecting and delivering breast milk to help the cause.
Save the Children’s chief executive Justin Forsyth explains the reality of breast feeding knowledge. “Despite the benefits of breastfeeding being widely known in the developed world, and it being a free, natural way to protect a newborn baby, too little attention is being paid to help mums breastfeed in poorer countries.”
The charity is making progress, but celebs are still jumping on board to make sure the message is being spread. Watch Isla Fisher, who’s father was a senior executive for the organization, visiting Brazil.
Isla on Sunrise (Aus) on February 22nd 2013
Isla Fisher: Why I’m promoting breastfeeding in the developing world
Isla Fisher leads a glamorous Hollywood life. She lives in a multimillion-dollar home, which she shares with her husband, Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, and their two daughters, Olive and Elula. When I meet her, she has just returned from a charity trip to Brazil, where she visited breast milk banks as part of a campaign to reduce infant mortality in the developing world.
That must have made for quite a contrast with her normal life? ‘Yes it did but seeing people put themselves out for one another was really inspiring,’ she says. ‘Pumping milk after breastfeeding is extremely tiring but these women have their own babies and were finding time to pump milk and schlep it to a milk bank to give to strangers’ babies. It was very moving.
‘I saw babies in intensive care, which wasn’t easy – no one likes seeing tiny babies being so sick. We met one baby who was two months premature and was being kept alive by the donated breast milk.’
But the actress is not keen on talking about her own children. ‘Motherhood is my favourite topic personally but I don’t like to discuss it professionally because it draws unwarranted attention to my children, who didn’t choose to be in the public eye,’ she says. She is similarly reticent about life with Cohen (pictured left). ‘I don’t talk about my husband but I will say it’s always nice to surround yourself with people who have a similar sense of humour to you – it makes life better. If you can’t laugh, what have you got?’
Save The Children – Isla Fisher
Isla Fisher is Save The Children’s new ambassador.
She’s a mum of two and breastfed both her girls until the age of two, so obviously she’s a huge supporter. Her dad was also a senior executive of Save the Children back in Perth, Australia 30 years ago, so she says she has always wanted to carry on the family tradition.
She spent a couple of days with Save The children in Sao Paulo on a worldwind tour of all its programmes etc and was visibly moved by what she saw. She toured hospitals, maternity units, milk banks and went out with an ambulance crew as they headed off on their regular daily service to pick up donated milk from mums and take it back to the hospitals.