|
Summer 2003 ISSUE 97 Midwifery Matters 33 Book Reviews The Milk of Human Kindness defending breastfeeding from the global market & the AIDS industry. International Women Count Network 2nd edition. 2002, Crossroads Books £8.50 This book will change your life. Reading it will send you to the rescue remedy, redouble your resolves to stick to the Nestle boycott and remind you to renew your subscription to Baby Milk Action. Yes, I knew about the Nestle boycott - the violations of the WHO Code; the exploitation of women, getting them back to work which prevents breastfeeding; the rise and rise of formula feeding; the illness and death of babies due to lack of breast milk; the exploitation of fears of HIV positive status. I knew all this and more, but I did not know it in its full, horrific detail. I did not fully realise how the formula and pharmaceutical industries had infiltrated governmental agencies, coercing them to endorse and use their products or suffer adverse financial consequences. The book, written by a group of women representing the International Women Count Network, has two main strands. The first looks at how clever marketing and advertising by the formula industry has made breastfeeding dispensible in favour of formula and the second is the influence that pharmaceutical and formula companies have on countries facing HIV/AIDS epidemics. Here are just some quotes
which will give you a flavour and leave you wanting more. The book looks in detail at the financial benefits of breastfeeding which have no price tag but which are equated against the costs of substitutes made from low‑cost ingredients. The health costs resulting from formula feeding are substantial but are never shown on a nation's balance sheets. Rather, there seems to be a conspiracy of silence over illnesses caused by lack of breast milk and encouraging women to lose their milk is what the formula industry does. Formula is shown as a healthy option which is as good as, if not better than, breast milk. In Nigeria, 87% of women using formula believed a health professional had recommended it. I wonder what the figure is in the UK? The assumption is rife that breastfeeding your child is less important than the work you do for wages The book argues that the work of breastfeeding should be valued economically as any other work. Because women can breastfeed while doing other work, this makes them society's most essential and productive workers. Formula is advertised as liberating women to return to paid employment but then someone else has to feed the baby. The fact that breastfeeding mothers have one third less absenteeism than formula feeders, whose babies are sick more often, is ignored. Many countries, some of which are considered backward in development, have legislated for breastfeeding breaks at work but the world's richest countries, including the UK, have not. Perhaps they prefer to spend their money on health care! HIV & AIDS The chapters in this book about HIV & AIDS make chilling reading and we should not think that they don't have much relevance to us. They spell out in detail how breastfeeding has been blamed for spreading HIV/AIDS; this has eliminated breastfeeding more effectively than any marketing campaign to date. The view that there is a substantial risk of mothers transferring HIV to their babies via breast milk is popularised by both the pharmaceutical and the formula industries who have a vested interest in selling HIV test kits, anti-HIV drugs and formula. These drugs preclude breastfeeding but it is not proven that babies contract HIV from breast milk. The information about the protective effects of exclusive breastfeeding is being withheld from women so they cannot make fully informed choices about feeding. Even the UN now recommends formula feeding for women infected with the HIV virus but then it has accepted substantial corporate funding from multinational companies who have a vested interest in selling their products. UNICEF, which until now has had the most authority on the breastfeeding issue, now defends the UN policy. Formula is not economic for anyone but the companies. The unethical marketing of formula throughout the world is in gross violation of the WHO Code which is not monitored for compliance by the UN or any government in the world. The story about the doctor in Pakistan who blew the whistle on Nestles' Code violations reads like a thriller. The intrigue and blackmail in it are mind-boggling Oh, and don't think that this country is squeaky clean. The Church of England has £1.4 million shares in Nestles and grants and sponsorships from Nestles have been accepted from several well known and respected charities. The book is thoroughly referenced and includes many references which support breastfeeding as a way to lessen the risk of transmission of HIV Some of the figures and costs are from the 1980s so may feel out-of-date but this may galvanise readers to find out what today's statistics are. After all, breastfeeding has become centre stage with strategic plans and global targets. I did not think that the lack of up-to-date figures detracted too much from the book's value as a consciousness raiser. The book describes very clearly just what the implications - both financial and health - are of formula feeding today, not just in the UK but throughout the world and how governments are in thrall to the formula and pharmaceutical industries. Penelope Samuel |