Archive site - new site at www.babymilkaction.org

Since May, the UK has had a Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government. In its first few months of office it has proposed radical cuts to public spending and a pro-market approach in health reforms. In November, the Guardian revealed that the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, had invited the major food companies to help him write health policy on obesity. Asking them to identify priorities and barriers, such as EU legislation, that they would like removed. Lansley has assured companies that he wants to explore voluntary not regulatory approaches. 

For those of us seeking to strengthen rather than weaken legislation on marketing this is a worrying time. However, we are holding on to the fact that the Coalition Programme for Government does promise to ‘crackdown on irresponsible marketing,’ to ‘promote public health,’ to ‘protect consumers’ and to ‘tackle health inequalities’. Also, the Liberal Democrats (like the Greens) have officially signed up to the Nestlé Boycott and to the demands of the Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG) and the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition (BMC) - namely to fully implement the International Code and WHA Resolutions (see press release). 

The obesity programme, Change4Life (C4L), set up by the previous Labour Government, had an off-spring called Start4Life (S4L) which covered infant feeding. In response to our lobby, and unlike C4L, S4L did not have corporate sponsors so its messages were not weakened. 

In July Lansley asked Nestlé, Pepsi, Coca Cola and others to increase funding to C4L.  In September, we heard that S4L might also have to have corporate sponsors. BFLG and BMC - representing over 40 health professional and lay organisations - including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Midwives, wrote to the Department of Health and to Lansley, listing companies that we would find totally unacceptable: any infant feeding, food, tobacco or alcohol company and any company targeting families. We said that companies such as leisure, telecommunications or financial services should be considered only if they are first thoroughly checked for bad social practices and monitored on an ongoing basis. 

We reminded the Government of its obligations under the International Code, the WHA Resolutions and the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding to provide objective, evidence-based information on infant and young child feeding and most of all to avoid conflicts of interest.  Baby Milk Action suggested raising funds from junk food, alcohol and tobacco taxes.

The response to us from Lansley’s office, and from Public Health Minister Anne Milton to Annette Brooke MP,  says DH is fully committed to promoting and encouraging breastfeeding and UNICEF’s UK Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation in the NHS, which includes adhering to the International Code. DH also promised to consult BFLG members on any potential S4L sponsors.

STOP PRESS: Breastfeeding at work

As we go to press a new White Paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our strategy for public health in England is published. This highlights the need to increase UK breastfeeding rates, which at 46.2% at 6-8 weeks, are among the lowest in Europe. The White Paper states that:

“The Department of Health will work in partnership with employers to encourage breastfeeding-friendly employment policies, through pilots involving an acute NHS trust, over 300 children’s centres in areas with low breastfeeding rates, a primary school and a secondary school.”

This is a welcome move, although nothing is said about the Review of the formula marketing regulations sitting in Lansley’s in tray. And of course what women really need is the protection of the ILO Maternity Protection Convention (C103) -  the legal right to breastfeeding breaks which is under discussion in the European Parliament and common in European and more than 90 countries worldwide.

In the UK the majority of women give up breastfeeding long before they want to and before they return to work, because they failed to get the right advice and support (all affected by marketing). Of those still breastfeeding between six and nine months, over 20% cited return to work as the reason for stopping breastfeeding. Only 14% of employers offered facilities to express milk. Ref: UK Infant Feeding Survey (2005).

Also see: www.ibfan.org/fact-maternity.html

Previous story

Next story

Baby Milk Action

Baby Milk Action is a non-profit organisation which aims to save infant lives and to end the avoidable suffering caused by inappropriate infant feeding. We work as part of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) to strengthen independent, transparent and effective controls on the marketing of the baby feeding industry. IBFAN has over 200 member organisations in more than 100 countries.

Baby Feeding Law Group

Baby Milk Action is the Secretariat for the Baby Feeding Law Group which is working to bring UK legislation into line with UN Resolutions. BFLG members include consumer and mother-support groups and professional bodies such as the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors’ Association, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and UNICEF's Baby Friendly Initiative.

International Code

We work for controls implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (The International Code). This Code was adopted in 1981 by the World Health Assembly (WHA), the world’s highest policy setting body. The International Code bans all promotion of breastmilk substitutes and was adopted as a ‘minimum requirement’to be implemented by member states ‘in its entirety’.

The International Code and the subsequent relevant WHA Resolutions, which have clarified or extended certain provisions of the Code, must be considered together in the interpretation and translation into national measures.

Protecting breastfeeding

There is no food more locally produced or sustainable than breastmilk. A breastfed child is less likely to suffer from gastroenteritis, respiratory and ear infections, diabetes, allergies and other illnesses. In areas with unsafe water a bottle-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarrhoea. Reversing the decline in breastfeeding could save 1.5 million lives around the world every year. Breastfeeding helps fulfill the UN Millennium Development Goals and has the potential to reduce under-5 mortality by 13%. A further 6% of deaths could be saved through appropriate complementary feeding. Breastfeeding also provides health benefits to the mother, such as reduced risk of some cancers.

Protecting babies fed on formula

 Breastmilk substitutes are legitimate products for when a child is not breastfed and does not have access to expressed or donor breastmilk. Baby Milk Action lobbies for regulations which ensure that their composition and labelling is as safe as possible.

Companies should comply with all the International Code requirements to reduce risks - independently of government measures. Parents have a right to accurate, independent information.

Contact details

34 Trumpington St, Cambridge, CB2 1QY, UK

Tel: (01223) 464420 Fax: (01223) 464417

info@babymilkaction.org

Baby Milk Action is funded by membership (£18 waged, £7 unwaged, £25 family, and organisation affiliations), donations and merchandise sales.

We have received grants from CAFOD, Christian Aid, The Joffe Charitable Trust, The Network for Social Change, Oxfam, Save the Children, SCIAF, S E Franklin Deceased Charity, The United Reformed Church, Rowan Charitable Trust. 

Update 43 was written by Mike Brady and Patti Rundall. Update is free to members and affiliates.

Previous page

Next page