I spend my life explaining this Code - to my clients who are manipulated by 
health professionals who are paid off by the formula companies, particularly 
Nestle who now own Materna, the local produce;
to hospital staff who arrange happenings and conferences ostensibly to give 
information about  (and promote) their maternitity departments - and then 
pay for these happenings by getting formula companies to sponsor them;
to health ministry officials who allow the very same peds who change infant 
feeding guidelines which are issued to well-baby clinics to get paid by the 
formula companies for working for their hot-lines, and so on.....

It is very simple.  The WHO Code was published to protect breastfeeding and 
thereby promote optimum health for the world`s infants, whether it be in the 
poverty-stricken regions of the Third World where water is contaminated and 
parents cannot afford to mix the formula in its correct quantities, or 
whether it be in the poor and rich regions of the developed world where 
unethical advertising and manipulation of health professionals with gifts 
and paid positions on advisory boards are robbing parents of quality 
breastfeeding support.

The Code presents breastfeeding as the safest and healthiest method of 
infant feeding.  Therefore all attempts to advertise and promote substitutes 
as equal or even superior to human milk is forbidden. These attempts can be 
in the form of misleading adverts which claim that the added iron or Vitamin 
X provides the baby with essential nutrients not available in any other feed 
or the visual TV promotions showing serene smiling mothers looking at a 
sleeping baby with the caption: Mother`s little genius. Influencing health 
professionals with gifts and sponsorship of conferences, donations of 
formula to hospital nurseries and charities that provide food to poor 
families on condition that their logos are displayed on pamphlets, bottles 
and accessories, all these are tactics that undermine breastfeeding.

The lay public can also understand these issues.  When I visit friends and 
refuse ice-cream or coffee if it is the brand manufactured by you-know who, 
it is very easy to explain why.

There is however a limit when it comes to boycotting companies that are 
affiliated to the formula companies. Nestles owns several food companies in 
Israel under different names, and while I always look for alternatives, it 
is not always possible to avoid or be aware of every product.

I stopped donating to several worthy charities because the formula logo was 
prominently displayed on their publicity material.  Instead I approached 
those charities with a list of 70 volunteers from the Israel Childbirth 
Education Centre who were prepared to help me run a telephone emergency line 
for breastfeeding problems.  Not one of them was prepared to help us set up 
the infrastructure or raise funds to cover the expense of a telephone line.

Not so simple after all....
Wendy Blumfield
Tutor Prenatal Teacher/Breastfeeding Counsellor, National Childbirth Trust 
UK
Israel Childbirth Education Centre 

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