I agree with Renee that the Code needs updating, but as we have seen 
(and I was one of those who pointed it out) it undergoes regular 
amending and updating via the World Health Assembly....but sadly, 
this isn't what she means.

The Code is an essential document, and support for it helps develop 
an international and consistent voice for everyone working in the 
field of infant feeding.

Ethical marketing has nothing to do with bottles and teats (or 
formula) having to be sold in brown bags down dark alleys - though 
simple, non-idealised packaging is part of ethical marketing.
It has nothing to do with prescription only feeding equipment.
Adherence to, and recognition of, ethical marketing does not imply 
that women are 'weak' or 'gullible'.
Ethical marketing has nothing to do with infant feeding education - 
apart from ensuring this education is ethically sound.

In fact, ethical marketing, and the WHO Code, does not speak to 
individual women at all. Their freedom to breastfeed or not is 
unaffected by it. The WHO Code speaks to HCPs - us - and to 
governments.

The WHO protects infant health - all infant health, including the 
infants who are not breastfed or breastfed exclusively - by ensuring 
infant feeding equipment is marketed ethically.

Mothers who need bottles and teats (and formula, for that matter) can 
still obtain them, freely without constraint.

HCPs who care for mothers around infant feeding can still supply 
bottles and teats (and formula) if their job includes that, freely, 
and without constraint  (my role as a breastfeeding counsellor in a 
volunteer organisation does not involve me supplying bottles etc, but 
if I was a midwife in a hospital, for instance, I would expect to do 
so, of course).
>
>
>Women are not going to change their mind in their use of a bottle 
>because of the
>packaging.  Pah- lease. A bottle is a bottle is a bottle no matter 
>what the packaging is.


Well....it would be a good idea to share that one with the graphic 
designers, the advertisers, the marketeers, the manufacturers, the TV 
air time bookers, the supermarket wholesalers, the design agencies, 
the copy writers and all the rest of them - it will be news to them 
that packaging has no effect on consumers! Spelling it out for you: 
specific packaging and advertising of any item is likely to make its 
use more widespread and to make consumers more inclined to use the 
same item, more often.
>
>  the Code should be specific and not
>open to extreme self serving interpretations that changes with the wind.


I am puzzled about this - Renee, when making  a statement like this, 
you also need to give an example of  i)   'extreme self-serving 
interpretations'

and ii)  an example of an interpretation that changes with the wind - 
presumably one that differs from the interpretation you are asking 
for, which changes with your perception of 'current culture'.

The facts are, as I see them, that the interpretation of the Code 
does not  change with the wind, or anything else - it is about 
ethical marketing and the ethical underpinnings of the Code are 
consistent.

>
>This is but one issue in the code that needs to be updated.  There 
>are many others. I am
>not saying that we should get rid of the Code, but it is just a 
>document. A document which
>really really needs to be reviewed under a clean white light before 
>it is adopted has the
>Holy Grail of Lactation.


I am puzzled about this, too. The Code as Holy Grail? And not as a 
working, practical document that informs HCP practice all over the 
world?

>
>I know I am not alone. I'm willing to bet there is someone out there 
>that agrees.  I am
>willing to be the one who publicly points and states- "The Emperor 
>wears no clothes."-


I regret that this is disrespectful to those of us who take ethical 
marketing seriously.

The analogy with the naked emporer is to imply that the Code is mere 
vain posturing, and that people and organisations who try to work 
within the Code are either deluded, or else scared to say the Code is 
vain posturing.

I hope you will withdraw that analogy, at least.

Heather Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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