Challenging laws

Not surprisingly, the industry has challenged some of these new laws in national courts. Their arguments can verge on the ludicrous: In India, Nestlé argued that it could not meet the law’s requirement that a notice about the superiority of breastmilk appear in a panel at the centre of formula tins—because one cannot pinpoint the centre on a cylindrical tin! 

Legal measures are only a beginning. We also need advocacy programmes to dispel the myths about breastfeeding. In the United States, social attitudes are such that mothers who breastfeed in public places frequently face harassment, sometimes even by police officers unaware that it is legal to breastfeed in public. More countries should offer the kind of explicit support provided by the Canadian province of Quebec, where women on public assistance who breastfeed receive an extra $50 per month. 

Finally, the industry should ask itself why it continues its stubborn pursuit of this market, given the cost to its image. The multinationals seem to believe they can wear down the opposition, but I have yet to hear IBFAN—or anyone else who knows the facts—cry ‘uncle’ in this battle to save 1.5 million infant lives each year. Surely profits from synthetic baby milk cannot be so great that these multinational companies are willing to endanger their income on other products by doggedly pursuing unethical marketing strategies for formula. 

Artificial baby milk should not be advertised in any way, and that must be final. Although there is a place for synthetic baby formula, that place is behind the chemist’s counter. Women should have to think consciously about their decision to use formula rather than breastmilk. They are free to decide to use formula, but that choice must be informed by the truth about what bottle-feeding will cost them and their babies.