On 07/12/2006, at 17:16, Karleen Gribble wrote:

> * Everyone says they support breastfeeding in Australia but only  
> under very
> narrow terms....a mother cannot bf too frequently, she cannot bf in  
> public,
> she cannot bf once her baby is past a few months of age otherwise  
> she will
> receive social sanctioning and pressure to wean her baby. This is a  
> culture
> that is hostile to breastfeeding continuance. We need a public health
> campaign targeted at other than mothers (friends, relatives,  
> employers) to
> change these attitudes.

And, as well as education: unequivocal protection across the nation  
for all nursing children to breastfeed in public free of harassment  
of any kind.

> * We need legislative protection for the unethical marketing of infant
> formulas (including retailers, not just manufacturers)
> I'm sure others have more ideas but I figure this might help for
> starters...the success of this is up to us all!

And we need a FULL implementation of the entire Code in law, not the  
abridged, toothless voluntary-code version addressing only infant  
formula marketing.

Maybe I'm an optimist, but I'd like to add across-the-board paid  
maternity leave, at least three months in length (moving to six  
months or more in the longer term), mandated availability of  
lactation breaks (feeding or expressing) in workplaces, strategies to  
make quality breast pumps readily available to all women with sick/ 
preemie babies, and strategies to improve the availability of local  
workplace childcares so that children have access to breastfeeding in  
a mother's break time.

Is there some reason, does anyone know, that this call for  
submissions has as one of its focuses, "The extent of the health  
benefits of breastfeeding"? Quite apart from the Weissingerisation  
issue, do we _really_ need another examination of whether  
breastfeeding really is best, or can we move on to implementation of  
support strategies instead of re-inventing the wheel yet again?

Lara Hopkins

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