by Susana Fierro-Baig
(Originally published in the Broomfield Enterprise,1998, guest columnist section)
The other day I received an unsolicited box in the mail, which could be called a “gift.” It was an attractive package, decorated with color photos of two babies, one African-American and one Caucasian. Inside was a complimentary can of formula.
Because I am breast-feeding my 4-month-old son, I refused the “gift.” I know that any bottle feeding could sabotage our precious nursing relationship.
After just two to three days of bottle feeding, many babies become accustomed to an artificial teat, and the amount of a mother’s milk production decreases, making continued breast-feeding difficult, therefore in jeopardy of an untimely end.
Is it coincidental that this “gift” arrived at a time when many women have begun to consider abandoning breast-feeding? (Probably not.)
One must consider the motives of such a “gift” by formula companies. The makers of formula are in business, and their success depends on mother making the decision to substitute their milk with artificial products.
In Indonesia, a study in the 1980’s calculated that mothers produced over 1 billion liters of breast milk annually. Equivalent supplies of commercial milk would cost $400 million. If the 51 percent of Indian mothers who exclusively breast-feed were to stop, replacing all of their breast milk with formula would cost about $2.3 billion.
Surely the “gift” sent to me was not a gift at all. It was a business promotion and a tactic to undermine breast-feeding. It is a tactic based on the premise that if it’s in your home, readily available and free, you are more likely to try it.
It is also a tactic that violates the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes, which The World Health Organization and UNICEF developed.
There are four points to the Code: 1) No advertising of these products to the public, 2) No free samples of these products to mothers, 3) No promotion of these products in health care facilities, 4) No baby pictures on these products.
More than 120 countries have enacted or begun to enact legislation or other legally enforceable measure to implement the code. The nine countries that have taken no steps to do so are Central African Republic, Chad, Croatia, Estonia, Kazakstan, Moldavia, Republic of Romania, Somalia and United States.
Adopting the Code would have a significant effect on the health of American women and children by limiting formula companies’ ability to discourage breast-feeding.
In 1997, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a nine-page statement that praised the “uniquely superior” quality of breast milk and recommended that babies be breast-fed for at least 12 months, not the four to six months previously approved.
The reasons for their change in policy are that breast-feeding decreases diarrhea, otitis-media, allergies, urinary tract infection, bacterial meningitis, botulism, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, ulcerative colitis, CrohnÕs disease, the usually fatal necrotizing enter colitis and/or sudden infant death syndrome.
Additionally, “breast-feeding is related to the enhancement of cognitive development of babies and reduced risk of ovarian and premenopausal breast cancers, reduction in hip fractures in the post menopausal period, and earlier return to pre pregnant weight” in women.
Isn’t it odd that in this society artificial feeding is encouraged, despite the many benefits of breast-feeding?
The American consciousness has been saturated with false information and subtle deception, which has led to the acceptance of pacifiers and bottles and a limited tolerance of long-term breast-feeding and public nursing. This has occurred for so long that change will be difficult.
Until aggressive advertising of formula is stopped, the AAP’s goal to “increase to at least 75 percent of the population, mothers who breast-feed their newborn babies in the early postpartum period, and to at least 50 percent the proportion who continue breast-feeding until their babies are six months old,” may be unattainable.
If the United States adopted the code, and images of breast-feeding became more prevalent in the media, breast-feeding would have a realistic chance of becoming fully accepted and appreciated for its beauty, as well as its physical and emotional benefits.