#breastisbest, #fedisbest? Society seems intent on pitching mothers against each other, but there’s no need to take a side. Whether you breastfeed, bottle-feed, or mix-feed we know parents are simply doing their best. Working for Save the Children I see that first-hand from parents all over the world. Yet when it comes to feeding your baby, formula milk companies are getting in the way of parents’ decisions. They’re putting babies at risk by putting their profits first.
Last week Save the Children published Don’t Push It, revealing the scale of the formula milk industry’s aggressive marketing and calling on them to clean up their act. Six companies spend the equivalent of £36 on marketing for each baby born worldwide - amounting to £5 billion every year. Their marketing routinely violates a World Health Organisation code set up to stop aggressive marketing to new mums. Parents are bombarded with advertisements including false health claims and social media promotions, while doctors report receiving gifts and incentives to promote infant formula.
Why does this matter?
An estimated 823,000 child deaths would be prevented in low and middle-income countries each year if almost all babies were breastfed. That’s nearly one in seven of all deaths of children under the age of five, globally.
This is because breast milk is a baby’s first immunisation. It offers the antibodies a baby needs to survive lethal diseases like pneumonia, which kills more children under five than any other disease.
In situations where clean water isn’t available, mixing formula with dirty water can be dangerous and life-threatening. And when parents can’t afford enough product and have to dilute it, or don’t have access to safe preparation instructions, babies’ lives are also at risk.
What about mums who can’t breastfeed?
Our report does not deny that formula milk has a positive role to play in the right conditions. There is a recognised medical need for some infants to be formula-fed, and for several reasons it is a decision made by parents around the world.
We found that even where mums want to breastfeed they face pressure to choose formula. In Yangon, Myanmar we met La Min and her daughter San Sundari. She told us that she thought it wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t breastfeed, because she could afford to buy formula. She made this decision after being told by the nurse that helped deliver her daughter that it would improve her baby’s IQ. So pervasive is the belief that artificial breast milk substitutes are better than the real thing in Myanmar’s healthcare system, that La Min even recalls doctors shouting at her when she decided to switch to breastfeeding instead.
What needs to change?
The time has come for companies to enter a race to the top to become the most ethical formula company, putting mothers’ and babies’ health as their priority and leading the way for others to follow suit.
We’re calling on:
- companies to publicly commit to upholding the code and agree to meet targets set to achieve full compliance
- investors of formula companies to consider their ethical investment policies and urge their formula companies to align with them
- governments to adopt the code into legislation, as the evidence is clear that legislation is the strongest motivator for these industry giants to play fair
All involved in this industry must put babies before profit.
Hannah Greer, a Campaigner from Save the Children's International Development department will be responding to questions and comments on this post later this week.
Photo credit: Chloe White/Save the Children