Tune in tomorrow at noon PDT to hear Mike Brady of Baby Milk Action, the UK
arm of IBFAN, discuss transnational formula company practices.

www.kvmr.org  or 89.5 FM in the Sierra Nevadas/Sacramento Valley and 105.1
FM in Truckee

12:05 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (adjust to your own time zone)

With Mike's permission, I include an outline of the topics he hopes to
address within the hour:

There has been a massive media campaign in South Africa concerning the
government's plan to implement the International Code and Resolutions.  Baby
Milk Action and IBFAN launched a campaign which saw hundreds of letters of
support being sent to the South African government encouraging it to stand
firm.

I could explain its provisions and history of the International Code and how
it was opposed by industry as it was being developed and continues to be so
today.

Recalling the South Africa link, we could discuss the situation with HIV and
what the World Health Assembly Resolutions and Global Strategy have to say
about this.  The industry is exploiting concerns over HIV.  As well as in
South Africa we have evidence of an attempt to overturn the Ghanaian
legislation by the industry citing HIV.  The Ghana law is one of the best in
the world.  IBFAN’s work prevented the Ghanaian law from being overturned.

Countries are succeeding and I can talk about the IBFAN case studies, which
I edited into the report “Using International Tools to Stop Corporate
Malpractice – Does it Work?”.  Brazil is one of the shining examples, where
legislation, progressively strengthened, has stopped much of the malpractice
seen in other countries.  Coupled with imaginative promotion and support
campaigns, such as the famous postal worker and fireworker initiatives,
breastfeeding rates are increasingly markedly.  In Brazil there is not the
same fear of giving offence in exposing the fact that artificial feeding is
the second choice, not an equivalent.  For example, in National
Breastfeeding Week, just last weekend, hundreds of feeding bottles filled
with milk were ceremoniously crushed by a road roller.  The case studies
report can be found at
http://www.ibfan.org/english/news/press/press21jan04.html

My wife coordinated IBFAN Brazil and ran Mother and Child Health services in
the city of São José, including setting up a human milk bank and gaining
baby friendly status for the hospital.  First entering the hospital I was
amazed by the signs saying “No feeding bottles, teats or dummies”.  My wife
explained all mothers breastfeed for the first 3 days in the hospital and
know they can come back to the breastfeeding support team based in the milk
bank if they have problems.  São José dos Campos now has one of the highest
breastfeeding rates in São Paulo state. You can find an article by Sonia via
the ‘Latest News’ section of http://www.babymilkaction.org/ (November 2003)
or download the pdf directly by clicking here
http://www.babymilkaction.org/pdfs/pracmidwife1103.pdf

While Brazil is a good example, there are problems.  We launched a campaign
earlier this year to stop the law being weakened by a review in the
congress.  Nestlé is also distributing powdered whole milk through the
governments zero hunger programme and displays whole milk alongside the
infant formula in the infant feeding sections of pharmacies and
supermarkets.  See a gallery at
http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/yqsanswered/yqanestle03.html

What about other countries where industry lobbying for voluntary codes has
won out over independently monitored and enforced legislation.  The examples
of Kenya, Bolivia and Mexico are in the case study report.  See
http://www.ibfan.org/english/news/press/press13may04.html

There has been a successful prosecution of Wyeth in the UK over illegal
advertising of infant formula and its attempt in court to have the law
overturned.  See http://www.babymilkaction.org/update/update33.html  

We could perhaps then return to the case studies and the lessons from them.
What works.  My final point is the need to realise that companies construct
business strategies operating over decades and campaigners must not be
discouraged if the going is difficult and results are hard one.
Perseverance is the key.

Arly Helm, MS, IBCLC
Broadcaster, KVMR-FM 89.5

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html