Phyllis,

It's not surprising that you are confused. Let me give an explanation.

The link that you found

http://www.allwomencount.net/EWC%20Moms/MHKindex.htm

is indeed the correct link for the book "The Milk of Human Kindness,"
that Barbara Wilson Clay mentioned. From there you can also link to
Pamela Morrison's JHL review of the book. This is the second edition,
which is the only one now available. I was involved in the writing of
the first edition, and some ILCA members may have copies that I sold
them from the WABA booth at the last Washington DC ILCA conference in
2000. Barbara Wilson Clay was one of the early supporters for the
project, and she is probably remembering the first edition.

The book was a joint project I did with International Women Count
Network (IWCN). We started out to write a fact sheet on the value of
breastfeeding to use in advocacy during the revision of ILO's Maternity
Protection Coalition in 1999-2000, but there was so much that we wanted
to say, it turned into a book. The chapter on HIV was quite provocative
and there were repercussions, so the first edition was withdrawn and
IWCN took up the task of bringing out a second edition. All the work I
did on the early chapters--basic information about breastfeeding, bf as
care, and the value of human milk and the work of breastfeeding--is
still there, and the authors gave me an acknowledgement, but I'm not
listed as an author on the cover of the current edition, since this was
really IWCN's project. I was not ready to join in IWCN's strong position
on the tough issues of HIV and breastfeeding, the effect of research
funding coming from drug companies, and UN agencies accepting
sponsorship or "partnerships" with corporations. I may have agreed in
principle, but I was not comfortable with the level of proof that was
available and didn't have the energy to look for more--especially since
I knew they had already combed through piles of information to find the
proof they did cite.

I recommend the book. It's well worth owning and reading. Others can
make up their own minds about this chapter of the politics of
breastfeeding that we're living through now. It's also a very handy book
for finding numbers to illustrate when you want to make a point about
the value that mothers contribute to their own economy or the
nation's/world's economy by breastfeeding. IWCN is an energetic and
committed group with plenty of ideas to make you think about a lot of
crucial issues, as you will see if you explore the links on the MHK
page.

<<One more: an editorial printed in BMJ 2001;322:57 ( 6 January ) Sorry
it's a little old, but this is the first time I have seen it.

Title: The milk of human kindness
How to make a simple morality tale out of a complex public health issue

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/322/7277/57>>

Also, thanks for Googling "Milk of Human Kindness" for us and finding
the British Medical Journal Link. (I could not work your second link,
the one about the African women.) I had not read that exchange of
comments sent to BMJ about the Wall Street Journal article. It gives a
great picture of the politics of breastfeeding, HIV, and formula. Note
the date: January 2001. This shows that IWCN was on the right track with
their critique of HIV research funding even in the first (2000) edition
of MHK.

Reading the section headed "Is the industry cashing in on the crisis?"
brought back memories of our advocacy at ILO. Alison Linnecar (this
spelling is correct) of GIFA (IBFAN's Geneva office) was a major player,
and Robert James Persons was very helpful in helping me track down
ILCA's application for NGO credentials at ILO. The comments of the
president of Nestle amused me: calling a journalist a breastfeeding
advocate in the same sentence as you call his paper "the last Marxist
rag in Switzerland" certainly shows what you think of breastfeeding
advocates! Even the US formula companies at least give lip service to
breastfeeding...but then, they are not such juggernauts as Nestle, which
controls a huge proportion of the food that is marketed in the whole
world, so I guess Nestle people feel more free to make arrogant
statements--at least on their home turf.

Any more questions? Just ask!
Chris

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA

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