Ending the Feeding Stigma with Laura Modi, Founder & CEO of Bobbie

0:00Aliza Pressman:The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

0:09Aliza Pressman:Welcome to Raising Good Humans podcast. I'm Dr. Aliza Pressman, and I'm so excited that we have Laura Modi here, who is the founder and CEO of Bobby. I love this brand. I wish this brand had been around truly when I had babies. It's the first mom founded and led infant feeding company and the third largest fully integrated infant formula manufacturer in the U.S. And Modi, who's the mother of four, was on a mission and is on a mission to fundamentally reform the infant formula industry, setting higher nutritional standards, increasing transparency, and driving accountability in a historically opaque and under-regulated space.

0:50Aliza Pressman:But I also really love that. And we're going to talk about this, Bobby in, in an era of like so much judgment on feeding and so much fear around feeding. Bobby is so supportive of women. If you're breastfeeding exclusively, but you just need something in case of an emergency, we all know that things happen and you want something that you think is high quality, that's there for your child, particularly if you're exclusively breastfeeding, but then also for all the parents who are doing combination feeding or they're exclusively formula feeding, there is some beautiful thought out, carefully done formula and also no judgment.

1:34Aliza Pressman:I cannot tell you how hard it is to find this kind of tone in infant feeding. And it's such a vulnerable space. so many of my clients have sobbed to me about this space for decades now so I and I was there like I was you know I'm I'm a mom so I've been there oh thank you god you can intro me anytime that was so beautiful this is a very vulnerable space and I think it's important to say that out loud because people might be like well this is a sponsored brand and I've been a Bobby fan long before I was a partner. And so I appreciate it so much.

2:16Laura Modi:You know, and even just, just to keep going on what you're saying here, like it's so much more than powdered milk. This is so much more than what you're choosing to feed your child. It's how you feel about it. It's feeling the joys and the ups and downs. It's feeling connected. It's feeling supported. It's, and whether you've heard of Bobby or you, you haven't used it or it doesn't work for you. Going through the emotions and the personal experiences of feeding your baby, you know how important it is to feel that connection and support.

2:48Aliza Pressman:It's everything, everything. It really is. And it's the first thing you can really do for your infant other than snuggle and cuddle is feed. It's like how we connect. It's the first thing that we offer if you're, even if you're exclusively breastfeeding, pumping and giving your partner a bottle is like a gift to them to have a moment of connection.

3:13Laura Modi:Well, I'll bring you back. I'll bring you back to the original, where did, where did it all spawn from? It sort of came from the fact that I went into motherhood with just expectations. I went into motherhood with expectations of this is going to work out. And by the way, it's also going to be easy. And society says my boobs will work and my support system will work and all of this will just work out. I don't think I had ever considered an alternative. I know I hadn't considered an alternative because when I had my daughter, I had her and then five days in found I needed to turn to an alternative and the guilt and embarrassment and shame.

3:53Laura Modi:And now I look back and I'm like, why did I feel like that? Why did I have all of this really personal pressure and judgment put on me at a time when what I really just needed was to feel okay and to feel the joy of just welcoming a baby into the world. And that whole experience just led me down what I call like sort of my gap year, my research gap year. When I had my daughter, I was combo feeding, I'd introduced formula And I found myself awake at like two in the morning doing Google searches around how to feed your baby. What's right? Is she going to be okay? Why is the formula landscape never changed?

4:34Laura Modi:Why do two companies continue to own it? Why is it that the same formula I had as a baby is the same one I'm buying my baby? It was a long research journey. And that journey just led me to a place I'll never forget. I peed on a stick for the second time and I found out I was pregnant with my second. And that was the moment of saying, I am now going to go do something about this.

4:58Aliza Pressman:Wow. Now, how many years ago was this?

5:01Laura Modi:That was nine years ago when I had my first. And it was, I'll never forget, it was like late 2017 when I made the decision to go do something about it.

5:15Aliza Pressman:amazing and so what did you do because again i can't tell you like anybody listening if you've fed an infant particularly mothers i just know that it wasn't the like it it just is vulnerable whether it's because you're exhausted or you can't figure out what will be pleasing to them or whether you were so certain that you were going to be able to breastfeed beautifully with no effort whatsoever. Or if you just like are, yeah, if you're Googling labels, it's very scary when you're like, I'm responsible for giving healthy nutrients to this baby. And I don't feel, you know, like there's an option out there, but I also can't breastfeed and all the stuff.

5:59Laura Modi:And you're, you're feeding your baby six to eight times a day. It is what's contributing to their growth and development. It is the most time consuming thing that you're doing as a mother. And then on top of that, you're sort of expecting it to all work out a certain way. And for what it's worth, I think there's this belief, you know, we can get into the whole breastfeeding versus formula feeding, but we will also forget it's so many other factors that play into it as well.

6:28Aliza Pressman:Yes, of course. And I actually, like, I so support mothers in whatever feeding journey they're on, which I know you do too. And I think that's a beautiful part of this brand that I almost don't want to get into the breastfeeding versus formula feeding because that's not the conversation. No, it's not.

6:47Laura Modi:And it's a really, really, really important message. It is so important for everyone, not just those that are feeding their baby, but their support system, their significant other, the real formula is everything else that surrounds your decision, your choice, even the availability, the access, the policies for how you choose to feed your baby. And feeding your baby is the choice. It is what you're doing. And no matter how that path works for you is the right one. And going back and questioning it and playing hindsight is not it. And it's also important to remember, even those, like you're saying, I mean, I breastfed all four of my babies for all different, all different durations.

7:29Laura Modi:Some were easy, some were hard, some boobs worked, some didn't. In fact, some of them even just weaning off was more challenging than others. And the wake up call, even through those going through my own four experiences, every single experience is different and personal. And if you will liken, if you try and to liken what your journey looks like to someone else, you will be left disappointed. It is so hard to consume. So everyone just needs to embrace their own journey. It's so true.

8:00Aliza Pressman:That should be the conversation is that everybody needs to, and having four kids is a great opportunity to believe what you're saying, which is like, they're all going to be different and it's not you. And it's not, you know, it's not like the choice.

8:15Laura Modi:It's the relationship. It is the relationship. Sure. We're talking about expectations a lot. This has been a unique insight through building the Bobby journey. There's a lot of studies on actions that result in a lot of outcomes, and those outcomes are reported out on stats. And I think through this journey, one of the things we've really come to learn is that the state of that parent, mother, leading into the journey. Like what was her expectations going into it? And it's almost like disappointment equals expectations minus reality. Your reality is shaped by the expectations you have going into it.

8:56Laura Modi:And I will tell you, I don't think one person had the feeding conversation with me going into motherhood. I don't think I even thought about it. Wow. The idea of me even adding a formula to my, to my baby registry wouldn't have even crossed my mind. Like no plan, no plan. No. So, you know, when I think even just about Bobby, one of the most beautiful things we've done is opened up the conversation and allowed those going into motherhood to start seeing maybe what reality would look like through other stories, through seeing it on social, to sort of just normalizing that it's all very different.

9:42And even as I'm saying this out loud, I haven't, I don't think I've ever fully vocalized it, but expectations is such a massive input in itself into how people result.

9:52Aliza Pressman:I mean, if you think about, yeah, those early moments with a newborn, it's so true that if you had support systems that helped you manage your expectations and helped you know that you're worthy, however it all lands, like it would change so many postpartum experiences.

10:16Laura Modi:it really would yeah and you know this is a personal story but you know I grew up in the west of Ireland I wanted to know that so I'm glad you're telling me there you go um and I grew up in a small little town in Ireland uh my grandmother had 13 children and she breastfed all of them and I just went in with expectations and the assumption that hey my lineage was able to do this. And me now having babies here in America, I just assumed it would be the same. I didn't even draw the differences of what my grandmother had gone through to what I'm going through, of which, you know, I think I had my first child 15 years after she would have had her 15, her first child.

11:06Laura Modi:So you just, you know, and like now it's, it's, I, I even again saying this, I'm almost embarrassed thinking that I just assumed. I just assumed.

11:18Aliza Pressman:But of course, how could you not if there wasn't a support system to say like, hey, by the way, this could be looking different for you?

11:25Laura Modi:It looks very different. My village, it didn't exist. It wasn't even there. I had to go back to work pretty quickly. The policies in this country are different. The entire system is different. That played a very big impetus even in creating Bobby because I started to look at how society at large had changed. It was almost the anthropology of it all. And how do we take that into account when it comes to raising our babies and feeding our babies, which is so much more than the product.

11:57Aliza Pressman:So much more than the product. But okay, along those lines, like you still have an amazing product. Yes, we do. So, and I think it's important to understand, like, I don't want to scare people that any product is like, everybody's going to be fine. They're so lucky to have food and healthy food is, you know, like I, I, this is not a scare thing, but I do think it's nice that somebody came in and said, I think there's a like more thoughtful way we can make a formula option for parents.

12:28Laura Modi:I love that you opened up with that because you would hear me repeat that as well. Two things can be true at the same time. There is no such thing as a bad product. There's no such thing as a bad formula. And you can also put out choice that maybe improves the options on shelf. And that was the goal. I don't, I look at my, my, my eldest who consumed a formula that I have now gone to better from, and she is doing as good and as great as the rest of the kids who consumed Bobby. But yeah, look, the way I look at it is science has evolved and it will continue to evolve. And I found myself reading the back of a can of formula going, why are we still using these ingredients?

13:16Laura Modi:Or why do these levels of nutritionals look like this when this science is basically pointing to it should be more optimal at a different level? And I was a crazy researcher mom. I'm still a crazy researcher. I found myself just digging into it going, why, why, why, why, why? And the reality is, is that there's no reason that it shouldn't have been different. The only reason is that no one had done it. That's wild. It is wild. And now it's like, it's been a long journey. It's been a hard journey, but I don't want, I don't want there to be this assumption that it was rocket science. It's not rocket science at all.

13:57Laura Modi:It's about coming in and saying, you know what? Natural milk sugar is lactose. And instead of having corn syrup as the carbohydrate, let's use lactose. It's saying that DHA is a nutrient that many countries say is important for cognitive development. So let's add DHA. And I get the question a lot, which is, why hadn't existing companies here in the US evolved to do that themselves? and the very reductionist response I can give is I don't think they were incentivized to.

14:31Aliza Pressman:Yeah.

14:31Laura Modi:And you see this in every industry. What would have woken them up at scale? You remember they were already serving 90 % of the market to say, hey, you know what? Today we're going to radically change our product. Right. And I hope that I'm seeing it today, but fast forward six years later, Bobby has pushed the status quo enough that you are seeing those changes.

14:54Aliza Pressman:Yeah. There are more options because you made it necessary and possible.

15:00Laura Modi:And we push the incentives of it. And that's what, that's what, that's what pushing competition looks like. And ideally the industry at large is better for it. So you fed your first baby with just, um, you, you fed, did you feed your second baby

15:18Aliza Pressman:with Bobby? Or was it your third? How fast did this happen? Yes, it was my third. I was going to say, that would be too fast.

15:27Laura Modi:It would be like, how did you make that? This was very optimistic, pregnant me. When I was third and Bobby, I put together a business plan and I drew the business plan out in trimesters. I was like, okay, my first trimester, I'm going to get this short list of things done. And then my second trimester is, by the third trimester, the product's going to be coming off the manufacturing line. It's going to be beautiful. I'm ready for my baby. And it did not work out that way. I think all of the reality of producing a highly regulated CPG product, pharmaceutical grade product came to light later in my pregnancy.

16:04Laura Modi:And it took an additional year and a half on top of that. And it was ready for my third.

16:10Aliza Pressman:By the way, I think that is good because it means like a lot. It's, you can't just, you can't just make a new infant formula. Like that's, that's a serious business.

16:22Laura Modi:It would be the wild West. If it was that easy. Yeah. And you know, I think again, let's nurture the tension between two things being true at the same time. Having a highly regulated industry can prevent speed to innovation. It can prevent new options. it's capitally intense it takes a long time and yet having regulatory oversight also gives you the safety and the confidence in the product that's coming to market and so I have a lot of gratitude for there being a regulatory body in place it's important and as a mother totally

17:00Aliza Pressman:like maybe the the business side is like oh but I wear two different hats all day every day on this Yeah. But it is important. Yeah. What did it feel like the first time you gave Bobby to your baby?

17:14Laura Modi:Oh, you know, I don't think I've ever been asked this question. Um, well, first off, Bobby is the name that my daughter called her bottle, my first daughter. And she used to ask for a Bobby. oh so it's such a meaningful word and name and now brand that to be able to translate what she used to refer to as her bottle to now being the product that I get to feed her siblings is so beautiful that's cool and you know you're asking them like how did it feel obviously a level of pride and excitement and joy to get to that place there's also I think a little bit of comfort in knowing I'm about to give a product to the rest of the country to other babies that I am willing to feed my own baby yeah that's cool it is cool and just knowing that this is something I am willing to do for my own children and continue to do.