Who's WHO?

"One and a half million babies die every year because they are not breastfed. Millions more become ill. What makes a woman believe she cannot breastfeed her baby, is the undermining of her confidence, by formula advertising." -UNICEF
In 1981, concerned for the millions of babies that die due to disease caused by the microbes that grow in unrefridgerated bottles of formula, or unsafe water that is mixed with formula, and due to the lack of natural immunities and perfect nutrition found in breastmilk, The World Health Organization and UNICEF got together and came up with The International Code of Marketing Breast-Milk Substitutes.
If you read through this document, you will see it is a well-researched, ethically sound, health promoting Code. A breastfeeding mother is a healthier mother. A breastfeeding baby is a healthier baby. A mother's body detects any disease or illness in it's environment, and in turn produces the appropriate antibodies for those diseases in the milk it makes. Breastmilk is the perfect food for human babies. It is free, it is easy, it is convenient. It keeps a baby's tummy and heart soothed, and boosts mom's mothering ability.
So, who is THIS man? What is the point to his article?

*"Promoters of breast-feeding managed to smear the use of healthy formula to nourish babies and discourage marketing of bottle-feeding products."

...Even if the water was clean at the well head, an hour later, mixed with powdered Nestle Nan or other marketed madness, it has microbes that will cause bloody diarrhea, marasmus, fever and death to two babies every minute. Where water is unsafe, a bottle-fed baby is 25 times more likely to die of diarrhea than a breastfed child.

*"The immediate objective of the resolution is to force infant-formula packages to carry warning labels akin to those on cigarettes or liquor. The ultimate goal is to scare mothers into abandoning bottle-feeding."

If every baby were exclusively breastfed from birth for six months, an estimated 1.3 million additional lives would be saved and millions more enhanced every year. Breastfeeding also eliminates the expense of infant formula or other substitutes and the incalculable emotional and economic cost of illness and death resulting from problems associated with artificial feeding. In many countries, feeding a child on breastmilk substitutes can cost more than the average income of a family. Breastfeeding can also help families with birth spacing by delaying the resumption of fertility after childbirth.

*"But many women lack the time or, in some cases, the health to feed their babies from their own breasts. For them, infant formula is an excellent substitute."

Here are some of the innovative strategies developed to implement the Code:In Iran, the Government has taken control of the import and sale of breastmilk substitutes. Formula is available only by prescription, and the tins must carry a generic label - no brand names, pictures or promotional messages are allowed.

*"For example, if a woman wants to pursue an active career outside the home, breast-feeding is often impractical. Infant formula provides the freedom that many women want, and deserve. Trying to make formula anathema is to thrust such women back to the Dark Ages.This question of choice for women is especially compelling in developing nations, where economies are beginning to draw females, as well as males, into the work force in key positions."

This is particularly important today, as women workers face ever worsening conditions of work. Given the current process of economic globalization, conditions of paid work are becoming more uncertain and precarious. As a result many women are working more for less. Breastfeeding is a right of mothers and is a fundamental component in assuring a child's right to food, health and care. Governments and civil society should pursue full implementation of these as human rights.

*"There's a correlation between high rates of infant-formula use and low rates of infant mortality. The reason is not that infant formula is better than breast milk, but that, as a country develops, infant health and nutrition improve, and the use of formula, at the same time, increases."

Many mothers do not exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of the baby’s life, nor continue breastfeeding for the recommended two years or more, instead replacing breastmilk with commercial or other substitutes. Formula feeding is an expensive and carries risks of additional illness and death, particularly where the levels of infectious disease are high and where preparation and storage of these substiutes is not carried out properly. Many studies indicate that a non-breastfed child living in disease-ridden and unhygienic conditions is between six and 25 times more likely to die of diarrhoea and four times more likely to die of pneumonia than breastfed infants. A recent study of postneonatal mortality in the United States found a 25% increase in mortality when infant were not breastfed.

*"This means that Africans should be able to choose, and not to be scared or shamed into breast-feeding. Radicals and their supporters at the WHO, however, want to keep African women, in effect, barefoot, denying them the choice, as they modernize, of a healthy, convenient product."

Exclusive breastfeeding for six months is crucial for the health of mothers and infants everywhere, not just among those who do not have access to clean water and cannot afford artificial breastmilk substitutes. But we also know that everywhere women are entering the work force in greater numbers and need special support to be able to breastfeed exclusively.Much of women's work is informal, poorly paid, or unpaid, unrecognized, and unprotected by labour legislation. Women usually take responsibility for unpaid household work and the nurturing work of child rearing. Thus, work includes income-generating activities in the recognized labour market and in the informal sector, as well as unpaid, unrecognized household and volunteer work. Only women have the capacity to breastfeed. But the integration of breastfeeding with other kinds of work requires new policies and actions to protect the rights of women, including the right to breastfeed.

My conclusion? What an IDIOT!!! Where did this guy come up with these "facts"? These "ideas"? The issue here is he's a big-business supporter and feels it's unfair for so many people to be boycotting Nestle. Nestle is the biggest violator of The Code, giving hospitals free samples in China, South Africa, Thailand and Hungary. It runs direct-mail promotions in Australia.Selling African women formula for their babies will improve neither the health nor the economy of Africa. Supporting the working woman's right to breastfeed, improving working conditions and protecting them under labour legislation would do a whole lot more good than taking their money and their children's health in return for a tin of milk-substitute.
Sorry this is not put together as well as I would have liked. I'm typing one-handed as I nurse my baby.
* the paragraphs in bold are quotes from Mr. Glassman's article
* the paragraphs in italics come from "The Code".