Hi Kathy:  I always like Lactnet t-shirts -- I loved the one we had the
first year, but never got it...

As soon as I get back to Honduras, I'll go off nomail.  I've been off for a
couple of months getting ready and going to China, but I'm back now and off
to the LLLI conference.

The following is the news article from China Daily about our trip.  The
"foreign experts" were basically, Mary Kroeger, a midwife who has been on
the BFHI evaluation team in the US and who helped write the Global criteria
when she was at Wellstart, Dr. Antonieta Hernandez, a pediatrician who is
executive director of the national breastfeeding commission in Venezuela,
South America IBFAN coordinator and member of the WABA steering committee,
Cecilia Muxi, an Uruguayan nutritionist, formerly South American IBFAN
coordinator, currently advisor to the Director General of Health in Uruguay
and myself, plus several people from UNICEF/China, including Dr. Hector
Traverso, senior health official and Basil Rodriquez, BFHI coordinator for
UNICEF.  Perhaps you might want to post this on Lactnet.  Since I am
traveling, I don't have the address to send things to.  Thanks and love to
all Lactnetters, Judy


FROM  CHINA DAILY 21/6/97

"UN agencies recognize China's baby-friendly action

UN agencies warmly congratulated China for its success in promoting
baby-friendly activities yesterday.

Experts from the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the World
Health Organization (WHO), who had just completed a 12-day inspection of
baby-friendly initiatives in China, said in Beijing that they were deeply
impressed by what
they saw during the assessment.

The team -- composed of nine foreign experts and a dozen Chinese
specialists -- visited 10 districts, counties and cities and also Beijing
and Shanghai.

They took detours and made unplanned visits to units and individuals to get
closer to the truth.

China launched the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in response to a call
from Unicef and WHO in 1992. Since then, 6,312 baby-friendly hospitals and
health centres have been set up, making up 42 per cent of the world's total.

In such hospitals, the infants are given to mothers for breastfeeding
immediately after birth. Doctors and nurses teach mothers about
breastfeeding and baby care.

All the hospitals forbid promotion of breast-milk substitutes.

The country has also promulgated a management principle on marketing of
breast-milk substitutes that restrict advertising on such products.

The government's creative implementation has enabled China to reverse a
trend toward becoming a bottle-feeding culture in only five years. Many
foreign countries still struggle to do it after 40 years' efforts, the
assessment team agreed.

"With the overwhelming success shown in the Baby Friendly Hospital
Initiative, China is well on its way to showing the rest of the world that
developments in the social sector can and will keep pace with economic
development," said Keshab
Mathema, Unicef representative to China and also head of the international
assessment team.

The experts said in the places they visited, there is superb evidence of
the commitment of government, the health system and many other sectors of
society to assuring systematic support to mothers and babies.

The experts also suggested China should consider developing guidelines for
systematic inspection and supervision of marketing of formula milk. They
urged the department of education to integrate baby-friendly basics into
the teaching curriculum from pre-school to preservice and postgraduate
education and training."


Date: 06/21/97
Author: Bao Xia
>