This is an incredibly important topic that people know ridiculously little about. So don't stay uneducated just read. You don't have to upvote nor follow. Just read.
Disclaimer: Formula, as a product, can be and sometimes is, a life savior and a valuable tool in breastfeeding aid. It is a feeding choice of many families and that should be respected.
That said...this post is not, in any shape or form, any woman's choice shaming. It will be a brief reflection (with very good links for those who want to learn more, and I do urge you to check them out) on how companies that produce baby formula care more about the money than about children's lives and how blind western families are to that fact.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Before you're even pregnant formula companies start their grooming of mothers-to-be. They buy significant amounts of search engine advertising, targeting those who are in the early stages of trying to conceive and are pregnant. They throw big money at an array of search engine keywords, in order to get the highest ranking results — above other (and more relevant) advertisers. The keywords they target mean their ads will get seen as soon as a woman wants to know when she is ovulating. They also go fishing by bidding on keywords like ‘breastfeeding tips,' hoping a mother will decide to try some formula instead. Of course, they want you to remember their brand for later. The earlier and more frequently you get brand exposure, the more trust they can build with you. It has been proven in several studies that exposure to formula promotion materials (especially prenatally) significantly increases the early cessation of breastfeeding, especially in the first 2 weeks and amongst women who are unsure of their breastfeeding goals. This study concluded: “Formula promotion products should be eliminated from prenatal settings”.
I have many times came across this myself, attending the education for a ''peer to peer'' lactation consultant, which I have not finished. But I had to research all things breastfeeding related. Due to my search history, my Facebook feed is full of articles sponsored by Nestle and other formula companies like Danone, for example, and I just can't seem to get rid of them no matter how many times I flag them as spam. It's annoying.
If you have ever been to a pediatricians office you could see how much promo material for formula and other products that companies like this produce (for example instant tea for breastfeeding mothers that has no proven benefits for the mother or the baby, or any, zero, none, influence on women's lactation or tea for baby cramps that, again, has no proven evidence to benefit the baby, quite contrary, it messes with babies gut health and has negative influence on weight gain for breastfed babies which leads to supplementing with, you guessed it, formula). They also give a ton of sponsored merchandise to doctors like pens, notes, t-shirts and others that parents can take with them from the doctor's office or that they are given directly by the doctors or nurses, like baby growth charts, car bumper stickers, solid food introduction charts and other). In some countries that have loose or no baby formula marketing regulations mothers get formula supplements by mail or a ''welcome baby'' packet in the hospital that contains baby tea, formula samples, bottles and other product that are designed to undercut breastfeeding efforts by the mother. Those would be ''light'' methods. There are more malicious ones like paying for pediatrician education like seminars and congresses (that are also co sponsored by formula companies) or giving the doctors extra fees if they promote their brand. Mothers who chose to supplement or exclusively bottle feed or those who, for some reason, do not reach their breastfeeding goals deserve help from their pediatricians and deserve honest and reliable information on formula use. Instead, they are given product placement and basically personal sails from their pediatricians depending on who they endorse.
More in this incredibly good article from BellyBelly: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/baby/sneaky-ways-formula-companies-try-to-win-you-over/
WHO ARE THE FORMULA COMPANIES KILLING AND HOW?
It would be easy to dismiss the danger of this kind marketing and breastfeeding sabotage coming from some fairly developed western country but it is no coincidence that, even in the west, the ones who are the most strike by this problem are the poor, the poorly educated and marginalised parents, families, mother and babies. When we have access to clean water, when we have medical insurance at low, or at least affordable, cost and money to buy formula it is easy to turn the blind eye and cry ''gulit''. But what about those who don't? Preparing formula so it is not harmful to babies is no easy task. It requires sterile bottles and clean water. The formula itself is often not a sterile powder, it requires hot water to prepare it and kill the bacteria that may get (or be) inside. I'll quote a segment of the incredible article I'll link below and urge you to read it in its fullest:
''Twenty-five years ago, when Dr Iqbal Kabir first came to work at this hospital, small babies were almost unknown as patients. Today, he says, infants make up as many as 70% of admissions.
The reason? Kabir shakes his head and points to a poster on the wall above Eti's bed. The same poster is displayed, many times, around the ward. It shows a baby's bottle, with a big cross drawn heavily through it. The message is clear. "Bottle feeding is harmful," says Kabir. "Because bottle fed babies get diarrhea since their formula is mixed with dirty water and since their bottles are not sterile. Do you know how many breastfed babies are admitted here with diarrhea? The number is almost zero." ''
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/may/15/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth
Another problem with formula marketing is false claims companies make about the supposed benefits of their brand of formula. For example Danone. Danone is notorious for misleading marketing such as that their formula milk ''feeds their personalities'' has ''iron for brain development'' or the case from Turkey where Danone claimed, while advertising Aptamil, that ''mothers with six-month old babies might not be providing enough of their own milk to meet their children’s needs''. Such info is feed to insecure and, often, undereducated mothers from all across the media, stores and even directly from the health workers themselves. And Danone is not alone, other brands like Nestle ones or Novalac, Hipp and others do the same. They lie for profit.
For more read here:
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/default.aspx?TabId=836&CompanyId=13158&CategoryId=306
http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease29jan14
Human milk has one component formula companies will probably never recreate: Live antibodies. Human milk itself is a live substance, much like blood, full live cells, enzymes, live good bacteria, food for the live bacteria meant to inhibit babies gut and other components that the body of the mother produces specifically for the baby to help it fight infections (like diarrhea, lung infections and ear infections, thing most likely to kill poor formula fed babies) But this is not really an issue on the west so we just don't give a shit. To breastfeed or not is not a matter of lifestyle choice for poor families in underdeveloped countries. It's more like a life or death situation. And that is not even brushing on the actual cost of formula.
It is not a rare case that babies suffer from malnutrition because the cost of the formula is just too much for their families so they tend to put less formula powder to make the box last longer. I've asked among my friends and they spend, depending on the brand of formula they use, anywhere from 45 to 65 euros a month on exclusive formula feeding. Compare that to average monthly income in eastern Europe, for example, and add other costs of having a baby like diapers...and you start to see the problem.
And then there is the whole other part of the problem that is infant feeding in crisis. I have attended a conference on the subject a year ago and was sincerely appalled on how, even there, the formula companies couldn't keep themselves from profiting. Among lecturers ware representatives from UNICEF and, whom I have found to be most impressive, a great project based greatly on volunteering named The Nurture Project International (https://nurtureprojectinternational.org/). I encourage you to see more info on the importance of their project (which is support of breastfeeding and proper infant formula feeding in crisis).
Good videos from the conference for Croatian speakers, by Unicef, and English speakers by NPI:
By Unicef: https:
By Nurture Project:
More good information on the topic:
http://www.businessinsider.com/nestles-infant-formula-scandal-2012-6/#w-mothers-everywhere-received-promotional-material-for-formula-5
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-baby-milk-scandal-food-industry-standards
http://ibfan.org/docs/FormulaForDisaster.pdf
WHY BOYCOTT NESTLE?
Often, when pointing out the unethical push for formula sails, Nestle comes up like some sort of a poster child for the subject. And with a reason.
A boycott was launched in the United States on July 7, 1977, against the Swiss-based Nestlé corporation. It started in the United States and expanded into Europe in the early 1980s. It was prompted by concern about Nestlé's aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes, particularly in developing countries, largely among the poor. As of 2013, the Nestlé boycott is coordinated by the International Nestlé Boycott Committee, the secretariat for which is the UK group Baby Milk Action and is overlooked by IBFAN-The International Baby Food Action Network.
IBFAN was founded in 1979. It is a network of 273 groups in 168 countries. Member groups include consumer organizations, health workers associations, parents' groups and diversity of organizations in the social justice movement. It has also individual members. For example, the group in Canada and in the United Kingdom have more than 1000 members each. Each group is autonomous and raises its own funds, with the assistance of IBFAN's Regional and Programme Coordinating Offices.
IBFAN collects complaints about breaching of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. Haven't heard of The Code? Here's more information.
On May 21, 1981, the 34th World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in the form of a recommendation, in the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution. More than 160 countries and territories, including the United States, agreed to take steps to implement the Code. Enforcement of the Code is a matter for the government of each country to decide, in keeping with its social and legislative framework.
The aim of the Code is to "contribute to the provision of safe and adequate nutrition for infants, by the protection and promotion of breastfeeding, and by ensuring the proper use of breast-milk substitutes, when these are necessary, on the basis of adequate information and through appropriate marketing and distribution."
So the implementation of the code is not an easy thing to do, mostly because of the strong lobbying from the industry. Even tho they claim to obey it (even when you google The Code you get an article on the Nestles page on what is the code and how they obey it, never mind I personally find them breaching it minimally one every friggin time I visit the pediatrician.
And when you google Nestle Boycott you get an article on that on Nestles official site too. Because of corse you would.
But even tho killing babies for profit should be the number one reason to boycott Nestle it is not the only one. Child labor exploitation or the attitude that having access to clean water (not bottled and sold by Nestle) is a basic human right are others, to name a few.
More on the subject:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-baby-milk-scandal-food-industry-standards
http://www.babymilkaction.org/about-us
http://ibfan.org/the-issue
http://attachedmoms.com/10-reasons-to-boycott-nestle/
http://www.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree
I also encourage you to watch following clips, one is a short documentary Formula for disaster and another is an introduction to Denis Tanović movie Tigers, about a whistleblower from Pakistan, who had to flee to Canada for asylum after exposing the malicious and unethical way formula companies pushed their product in developing countries:
WHY ARE ''MOMMY WARS'' A BULSHIT?
There are a few narratives that somehow became a thing among the parenting communities in the last few years. One is that of mommy wars, which is basically pitching women against each other and selling them, literally, the idea that one group is somehow judging the other for their parenting choices in order to derail the conversation from the real issues such as the problem of waste production and chemicals in disposable diapers or lack of breastfeeding/formula feeding support or the
needlessness or even potential dangers, of certain baby products such as variety of baby cosmetics, some types of baby food, toys, apps, you name it. Basically, every attempt of an argument based discussion on a parenting issue is quickly silenced by screaming ''mommy wars'' and''guilt''.
To quote one of my favorite bloggers :
"Mommy wars" don't exist. Women are capable of discussing various parenting matters without turning it into a catty "war."
(https://www.motherwiselife.org/)
Another one is the ''Fed is best'' campaign. It started with one mother whose baby died while exclusively breastfeeding. The baby wasn't getting enough breastmilk and the red flags were missed by the family and, what's much more important, by medical professionals. So she started to spread the message that is, on the outside, very appealing, but why is it problematic? It perpetuates the narrative that baby feeding is a mere choice between two equal options and completely erases the responsibility of medical personnel that is suppose to care about the mother and the baby (Gynecologists, midwives, nurses, lactation consultants, pediatricians...the whole fucking system) I hate this notion of shushing the breastfeeding information that is vital in this day and age where capitalism and individualism destroyed the village that we still need to raise a baby. The number of mothers that do not reach their breastfeeding goals, no matter how short or long they are, is not an indication on how human breast fail to function but an indication on how unsupportive the system is and at the same time all we see is ''breast is best'' and ''all you need to breastfeed is good will''. Which is both utter bullshit. the responsibility for the breastfeeding rates is NOT by any means on the woman it is on the system, the politicians, the medical personnel.
Perpetuating the ''fed is best'' and ''mommy wars'' narratives not only make woman think it is solely their responsibility and guilt if they fail but is in masking the real problem, which is all of the things I write about above, and if we don't name the elephant in the room stomping all over the new mothers, we will not solve it. In the mean time we have women that are repeatedly stomped on all over the flour pointing fingers at each other saying ''you are making parenting choices for your kid just to make me feel guilty''
More on that here:
http://parentingpatch.com/problem-fed-best/
http://mamabananasadventures.com/2017/03/the-truth-about-fed-is-best.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amy-brown/why-fed-will-never-be-bes_b_12311894.html
http://evolutionaryparenting.com/fed-is-best/
WHY IS BREAST NOT THE BEST?
Breast is not the best. Breastfeeding is not the best. breastfeeding is just a normal thing mammals do. It's a biological norm for the human race. But where did this catch phrase came from?
Formula marketing companies.
If you have a product that is absolutely necessary, like, life or death necessary, but just for a fraction of the population, how do you sell it? you create a demand where there would normally be none. It's basic economic logic. There is nothing mystical about it. If we take into consideration that, according to some resources over 90% of women can actually produce enough milk to exclusively breastfeed for at least six months, if they want to, of course, even if we reduce this number to 80 percent that does not even come close to breastfeeding rates in some developed countries are under 50% at average by the age of six months. That is an absolutely ok number if it were indeed a woman's informed decision to do so, but that is more often than not the case. And it has little to nothing to do with how hard women try to breastfeed or their physical ability to do so.
And to talk about how simultaneously pressuring women into breastfeeding with promoting it with slogans like ''breast is best'' and giving hospitals the ''baby friendly'' label without actually adequately training your staff on how to support woman in their (breast)feeding choices and when they fail the system (and we, our society as a whole) just turns around, puts our Judgy McJudgerson face on and says ''You should have tried more. Everyone can do it.''
Fuck that shit.
Woman need more support and by that I mean more strict control on formula companies, implementing the code completely into our legislation with act5ual penalties for breaching it, more actual support (like at least one IBCLC consultant per hospital, whose education and the licence is paid by the government not the consultant itself. If you don't know what an IBCLC is, find it out here: http://www.ilca.org/main/why-ibclc/ibclc), more support for peer to peer consultant like LLL or many other local organisations (here we have The Roditelj Organisation in Serbia or Roda - Parents in action in Croatia who provide free, volunteer peer to peer support), more strict revision on the baby friendly hospital title and working towards making mother friendly hospital initiative come to life, more doula education (especially the post partum doulas, they have a vital role helping mothers that have no family members or friends to give them a helping hand in the first few weeks after birth), more available psychological help for moms dealing with post partum depression, more pre-birth education on sustainable parenting resources and etcetera.
Remember, it really does take a village (http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/)
More on this:
http://www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2010/07/breast-isnt-best.html
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-is-not-best/
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/shares-in-new-baby-formula-company-go-nuts-2017-1
https://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/chinas-infant-formula-market-continues-to-evolve/
https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/what-is-baby-friendly/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/breastfeeding-rates-in-the-uk/
https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/index.htm
http://kellymom.com/fun/trivia/bf-numbers/
I would like to conclude the way I started, with a disclaimer. I hope the take away from this rant of mine is not that there should be any favor of one feeding choice over the other or that formula feeding is not a legitimate choice for some families that find that breastfeeding isn't their cup of milk but those choices should be informed. As long as you don't neglect your kid I don't really give a fuck on what choices a certain person makes. If they want to breastfeed for like four days, four hours, four minutes or not even I second, it's fine by me and it should be fine by all of us but we should make sure that families meet their goals regarding breastfeeding and that they are provided with truthful information, no matter what choice they make. Formula feeding is not without risks, and in underdeveloped countries and among poor families in the developed world consequences are almost inevitable and some babies die. Not due to breastfeeding hype, not because of overzealous mothers, not because of activists, not because of mothers not having the means, healthy breasts or will to breastfeed but because of corporate interests and lack of governmental care for children's, especially poor children's, well-being.