Dear Marianne and everyone,

I haven't read all of the discussion recently, but this is a point
I've been meaning to take up for a while.

*My oh my... Marsha... if you have such a hard time to explain to
intelligent
lc's like us what the differences are... something must be wrong.
How do you feel about that...? Don't you think it is weird, that you
have to
be so highly educated about the Code to be able to know the difference
between marketing and selling and to define whether something is a
violation
you should speak up against and adjust your way of practising to or not?
Just the other day, someone said: "The Code has to be adapted to the
present
situation", meaning that bottles and teats should have a place, now that
pumping is much more common.
Different view... how about it? ;o)*

Think about ....maybe salt. Something really basic that we all use. We
know when we need some, we go to the shop and buy it. We don't worry
too much about what kind it is, though some may have their favourite
kind. We don't see ads for it on TV, on bill-boards, in magazines,
etc. There are not money-offs, buy-one-get-one-free offers, no fancy
packaging. Nobody gives us little sample packs. There are no brightly
coloured 'shelf-talkers' to attract our attention in the store. We do
not go around singing the jingle from the radio in our heads, our
children don't recognise the logo. Yet we manage to buy salt when we
need it and the salt producers manage to keep their businesses going.

Why can't bottles and teats be like this? We could simply buy one when
we need one.

The Code is reviewed every two years at the World Health Assembly. So
far the results - the Resolutions - have urged the governments of
member states to get on and actually implement the Code! And have
clarified some aspects.

The Code is about *marketing and promotion*, not about selling botles
and teats - and formula. If the Code was properly implemented and
backed up by law, bottles and teats and formula (etc) would be sold
like salt - available when needed, not pushed or promoted.

And we as breastfeeding helpers of various kinds, we would be working
with well-informed women and well-informed health care professionals,
who had plenty of scientific and factual information about artificial
feeding products - not 'free' lunches, cruises, conferences,
manicures, air conditioning units, note-pads, wall-charts, pens, mugs,
and so on.

Think how much cheaper formula and bottles could be, if the companies
didn't spend lots of money on advertising- and that cost comes out of
the mothers' purses of course.

Women and health professionals need information about pumps and the
accessories, what different kinds there are, which kind fits which
situation. They do not need promotional material, full of idealising
language and misleading images.

Every boy and girl in school needs to find out the differences between
information and promotional material, to see how they are being
manipulated by the marketing industry. If we become street-wise as
consumers and as professionals, we will begin to take control of our
buying choices - maybe a lot of choices would change! I remember
hearing about a group of breastfeeding peer counsellors in training -
their instructor told them just a little about how the promotion of
articicial feeding works, and why less-educated women are particularly
vulnerable to advertising, and how the companies prey upon that
vulnerability. They were furious! They felt protective of their
communities. This is a dormant power I think we could wake up! Not
just women involved with breastfeeding support, but men who care about
their families too - community leaders of all kinds.

Rachel

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