Join the campaigns to BF in Public and stop Formula advertising!!!!!!

[Difers]

I got this e-mail today and thought that some of you may be interested in supporting these campaigns

Dear Friend,

We have a short, but important window of opportunity to influence policy and implement two of the Breastfeeding Manifesto?s objectives. As a supporter of The Breastfeeding Manifesto I am writing to ask for your urgent help to influence two important proposed laws which could see the implementation of objective 5 and 7 of the Manifesto- if you act now. Visit www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk and send the emails to the government ministers on the ?How You Can Help? page. It?s quick and easy!

Objective 5-Breastfeeding in public

Objective 5 of the Manifesto is: ?Develop policy and practice to support breastfeeding in public places.? The UK government has released The Single Equality Bill for consultation. This means that everyone including organizations and members of the public can submit their comments on this proposed new law. The Single Equality Bill covers a range of issues but one of its aims is to stop the discrimination against breastfeeding mothers in public. We are delighted that the government is finally addressing this issue. However, we feel that the bill as it currently stand is worrying; it only provides protection for those mothers who are breastfeeding a child up to the age of 12 months. By only protecting Mothers breastfeeding children under the age of 12 months the UK government is sending out a message that it is unacceptable to breastfeed a child over the age of one and therefore suggesting it is acceptable to discriminate against them. The World Health Organization recommends that babies are breastfed for two years or beyond and so we believe that the cap on 12 months could be damaging to children?s health. We need you to send the email at the bottom of this pagewww.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk/make_your_voice_heard_1.php to ask the government to change the proposed law to ensure all women are fully protected to feed their babies in public beyond their first birthday.

Objective 7- Advertising of Formula Milk

Objective 7 of the Manifesto is: ?Adopt the World Health Organization International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant Resolutions.? The Food Standards Agency is currently consulting regulations for the advertising and promotion of formula milk. You may have read the recent press coverage and out cry surrounding OK, the model Jordan and SMA formula milk. It is this kind of promotion which we want to stop. However the proposed regulations would not cover this kind of promotion and so the regulations are inadequate for protecting parents and babies from the influence of formula-milk promotion. Parents need reliable information based on evidence, not commercial pressure from baby milk companies. Non commerical, independent information will benefit all parents including those who bottle feed. However, the proposed regulations are inadequate for the job of protecting parents and babies from the influence of formula promotion. Objective 7 of the Manifesto calls for the implementation of The WHO Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and it provides an excellent model for the law that is required. We need you to send the email at www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk/make_your_voice_heard_2.php asking the Foood Standards Agenncy to go further than they propose to go.

It is only with your help and when we work together that we will be be able to influence the government and have lasting affect on children?s health.

I urge you to please visit this website and send the emails, your voice really matters.

Best Wishes

Alison Baum

Co-Founder and Spokesperson, The Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition

Liesel, it's not formula that would be banned under the legislation, just the advertising of it. How does advertising help formula feeding mothers?

There's a thread on here at the moment asking about the choice of different formulas. Is X better than Y, and if Y, should the baby have supplements? Impossible question, because there is no independent information available which would assess and compare these options - but there is advertising, with slogans and pretty pictures. Get rid of the slogans and pretty pictures, which are designed to sell, and lets have decent information instead, to help all mothers and babies.

oh no, not this tired subject again. Some of us can't breastfeed or have to combine bf and formula so let us get on with what we have to do, okay?

As for bfing in public, if anyone tried to stop me, I'd squirt them in the eye!

And Liesel, the campaign is not to breastfeed in public - it's to stop women from being hassled if they do. It won't be compulsory!

Your family may have done it without a problem. That's not the case for everyone, and there are instances where women have been made to move....you can't be saying that's ok.

How awful if we ended up with a law which gives out the message that it is normal to feed a child up to a year and then somehow offensive to others after the child's first birthday.

I discreetly fed my 15 month old on a bench in a quiet square the other day and two sweet old ladies kept smiling at me which was nice. Once I stood up and put DD back in her pram one of the ladies asked if she was a boy or a girl and how old she is. When I replied 'girl, 15 months' she sort of recoiled and tutted and muttered something to her mate about 'spoiling'. Made me want to knock their blue rinse heads together rather!

Why is bottlefeeding an older baby ok but breastfeeding, which is after all the more natural of the two feeding methods, is seen as distasteful. Utter madness.

In my experience I have NEVER been asked to leave somewhere or move when BF in public (and even in my short time BF I have done it EVERYWHERE in public).

BUT I have been asked recently to leave a part of a restaurant because my toddler was too loud and disturbing a couple's lunch (it was in a PUB for goodness sake - the "family area" was tucked at the back with hardly any space for more than 1 family/pram at a time). It made me livid.

I can now understand what it must feel like if someone told you to leave/move because you were BF.

Hope there is no age limit set on the right to BF in public. Good luck with it.

why not start a Let People Feed Their Baby However They Like Manifesto And Coalition.

i have absolutly no problem at all with public breastfeeding, i think its lovely and i find it outrageous that women are told to leave if they feed in public,
i am going to bottle feed because i just feel weird about breast feeding, i have never ever thought of or been influenced by formula adverts, i was breast fed and have thought breast was the way to go, but now im pregnant and have to think of these things ive decided to go for the bottle, so i would like to know about different formulas, how much to give etc. but how am i going to know if all advertising is banned and midwives aren't allowed to advise?
i overheard a new mum in the doctors saying that people act like she is giving her daughter heroin when she bottle feeds, it sounds to me like bottlefeeders are going to be the ones needing support groups.

and i agree with desi, the name does sound militant and agressive, it conjours up an image of rows of women in military uniform.

formula feeding is a choice too

jesus

Binkle, I was, in no way criticising mothers that don't breastfeed, etc....I was just saying that our choice in feeding method has nothing to do with instinct itself.
The basic instinct is to nourish your Baby, but in our society, Formula is a perfectly adequat and very openly accepted choice of feeding.
I have no idea for your personal reasons not to breastfeed, and it is, indeed, non of my business.
Often the women that just don't like the idea of breastfeeding tend to say that they feel uncomfortable with the thought of it, which often comes down to the breasts being highly sexualised, forinstance (not that I believe that boobs are just there to feed and not for sexual pleasure), but I think it's sad that many women feel that one thnk cancels the other out. Not saying or implying that you fall into that caategory, just an example.
Maybe it's not brainwashing as such...but there was a major shift many years ago, when women were mostly following the trends and did as the Doctors told them, where Information was harder to get by, etc...and those are this generations grandmothers and mothers of the new mother, and those generations still influence the new mothers...but of course we tend to seek out more information and are more able to make a conscience (sp?) decision about things...but sometimes it can be difficult to find the right info when you need it and of course a new mother is often very vulnurable, and therefore more succeptable (is that the word?) to pressures from the environment.

Joopie, if there was independent information about formula about, rather than that given out by the companies that sell the stuff, then Health proffessionals would be able to advise much freeer (sp?) about it....because their information could not be construed as favouratism of a certain brand, etc....!

custardo, but this isn't about the choice itself, is it?
It's a) about creating a law that stops people harrassing a mother for feeding her Baby and b) about stopping formula advertising, not about stopping production of advertising.

What just srikes me is, so many people can't see how it actually affects their choices anywya...but why on earth are the big companies so against not having to pay large amounts of money for advertising anymore....oh, I forgot...because it works!

I take your point. I just wanted to reiterate that of course breastfeeding is the age-old natural way to feed a baby, absolutely. The desire to do it however doesnt come naturally to all women if you see what I mean.

You are probably right that in some cases this is because the choice to formula feed is made so easy and accessible because bf isnt promoted adequately etc. and also right that some women dont consider their breasts are for babies as opposed to solely for blokes.

It can be argued that if you dont particularly want to do it, their are some women who will put those feelings aside for the good of the baby - I completely applaud that decision.

I dont think Jesus can hear you custy........

Of course formula feeding is a choice, for some, at least. It is not for others. If you feel the need to campaign on behalf of those who feed their babies formula you go right ahead.

I mean, those of us campaigning for better labelling on formula tins, and no bullshit advertising are campaigning for...erm, let me see...er the right to breastfeed. Or something. I dunno.

If people want to campaign for better rights for those who choose to breastfeed their children, then all power to them. (and me). WTF has it got to do with those who "choose formula"? I mean, if it's a divide you want on this issue????

BInkle...but why do you think that women nowadays have sometimes no desire to breastfeed?
Do you belief that before the days of Formula, etc...that women even then felt disgusted or whatever about it, but still did it because there was no choice (unless you were rich and could pay a wetnurse)?

Because, in a way, I can't believe that? I really don't think that was the way, somehow.

oh vvq - why be so deliberatley contentious.

first of all Jesus can hear me - he is my lord and saviour.

Second of all i do not want to campaign FOR formula feeding - the inferrence being ...as opposed to breastfeeding.

this concept is bizarre.

I advocate choice. Stopping formula advertizing is a restriction of choice IMO.

should that advertising be untrue in any form - then ofcourse this issue needs to be tackled - as per any false innacurate advertizing

I am quite frankly sick and tired of advocating choice and being treated as though i am anti breastfeeding. this is completely false and innaccurate.

Well, it is because you consistently post in reference to only one of the choices.

As for me being contentious - er, isnt that a bit pot and kettle?

Advertising is pretty much all over exaggeration and lies/extending the truth though, isn't it....I mean, not just formula, everything...it's all lies...!

If Formula companies would be willing to give real and true information rather then advertising their product...

joopie: you are "going to bottle feed because i just feel weird about breast feeding, i have never ever thought of or been influenced by formula adverts"

I think we are all influenced, often in ways we don't realise, by advertising, directly and indirectly.

"ive decided to go for the bottle, so i would like to know about different formulas, how much to give etc. but how am i going to know if all advertising is banned and midwives aren't allowed to advise? "

No one is arguing that you should not be informed about infant feeding, in order to help you make the choice you feel is right for you. But how on earth is advertising going to help you with that? Advertising is designed not to inform, it's designed to sell - how does sloganising and fluffy bunnies on the tin help you make up your mind about which brand to use? Many brands make health claims which are actually illegal, and their making up instructions are out of step with current guidance.

Midwives who say they are not allowed to advise on formula are either lying or simply not doing their jobs. They ought to be able to teach you how to make up a bottle, and they ought to be able to guide you in a basic way through the different formulations - what they can't do, because the information is not there, is recommend a brand on any good evidence of its quality over other brands (not that that stops some of them doing so).

So - information yes

advertising no.

How is stopping Formula advertising restriction of choice, btw?

first of all

becuase i am contentious on other threads is not an excuse you you to be deliberatley contentious when posting to me. I am not deliberatley contentious when posting to you

second of all

i post on this subject in defence of choice - not in defence of a particular choice.

and usually only post when people see fit to advocate taking choice away.

Look, I really dont know why you keep coming on and posting about formula being a choice, and pro-choice as an assumed argument against better labelling, and proper information for parents - however they feed their babies.

That is why you are often picked up on your posts about it.

You seem to post adversarily when it comes to campaigns about restricting advertising - which, unless someone can prove otherwise - does fuck all for choice.

You post adversarily on a thread about campaigning for laws to prevent women from being hassled in public when b/feeding.

You post a "ha ha" thread about liking the new SMA advert.

I mean come on.......

Oh, and if you can pick and choose where you are contentious, well fuck me, so can I.

It's never been one rule for one, and another rule for another around here.

I'll post as I like, same as you do.

I rather thing to say that stopping advertizing becuase it is harmful - because it spreads fast the demon word about formula feeding

and then saying - but stopping advertising doesn't restrict choice

is having it both ways.

either advertizing does affect your choice - or it doesn't

who is advocating to take choice away?

vvq i think you misunderstand. I was simply citing that an excuse for your being deleberatley contentious - shouldnt be " well you do it"

of course if thats how you want to post - the freedom is yours - as you rightly say.

custardo - how does advertising formula promote choice?

Does it not make the 'choice' rather difficult?

How do mothers decide to choose between 'closer to breastmilk' and 'even closer to breastmilk' and 'now, closer than ever to breastmilk' ?

Every mother is free to choose to use formula - restricting promotion and advertising will have no effect on that choice.

Please explain how formula adverts help...and whether you think there should be no restrictions at all, so free samples could be given to pregnant women and new mothers, for example (as in some parts of the US)?