Many thanks, Kathleen Bruce, for your note of May 17. Unfortunately, I left
at about that time for extended duty travel and vacation and only just read
it! You are certainly right that what is happening in China is sad. But it
has been the same in virtually all the "socialist" countries. Somehow the
only rights issue they were aware of seemed to be the right of women to
access to "modern" infant formula. In the 1979 WHO meeting that lead to the
formulation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk
Substitutes, the Soviet delegation distributed a pamphlet in English. I
expected to read that here at last was "proof" that capitalism was
destructive. Instead they bragged that soon all Soviet women would have
access to locally made infant formula. Later I heard that the difference
under Gorbachov was that it could even be imported...

But these misunderstandings can be changed. We managed to get Latvia to
accept, not just the infant formula they had requested from Sweden, but
also funds for a breastfeeding promotion project. (A pediatrician from
there claimed that 80% of their mothers could not produce enough milk. She
assumed that no one breast fed anymore in an advanced country like Sweden
and was shocked to here that 80% do!) In Tanzania bottle feeding was
catching on 15 years ago. In my trip there a couple weeks ago I was
delighted to see that although they are rapidly heading toward a free
market economy, their national breastfeeding promotion program is having a
good effect. At least in one area I visited, women seemed to be beginning
to breast feed exclusively for four months (women who claim their babies
have never had a drop of anything else!), something very rare anywhere in
the world in my experience. In Viet Nam, the rush after infant formula,
even by misguided government health workers, is now probably on the verge
of changing as training at the Code Documentation Centre in Penang,
Malaysia has led to a new strong Code and other pro-breastfeeding
activities there. We have worked on some of our Chinese colleagues
successfully, but it is going to be a big job to change the direction
things are taking there regarding breastfeeding.
Ted Greiner, PhD
Senior Lecturer in International Nutrition
Uppsala University
75185 Uppsala
Sweden

phone +46 - 18 511598
fax   +46 - 18 515380

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