Breastfeeding Movement

The movement to promote breastfeeding emerged in the 1930s in response to the growing popularity of bottle-feeding. Around the turn of the 20th century, companies had begun marketing bovine milk products as infant food. By the 1950s, bottle-feeding was more fashionable and considered scientifically superior to breastfeeding. In the developing world, early breastfeeding advocates argued that formula was expensive for poor families and had extremely negative health consequences for babies. Meanwhile, in the United States and other industrialized countries, white, middle-class women argued that breastfeeding was an important aspect of mothering. Since then, an internationally organized breastfeeding movement has formed to challenge multinational corporations, influence international policy, educate citizens, and support breastfeeding women throughout the world.

The breastfeeding movement in the United States largely grew out of the first La Leche League meeting in 1956. That day, seven women in the suburbs of Chicago met to support each other's efforts to breast-feed. Critical of modern, “scientific” methods of mothering (including bottle-feeding, infant schedules, and anaesthetized childbirth), these women saw breastfeeding as the path to good mothering. They asserted that breastfeeding unified mother and baby, as well as the family and society. La Leche League soon became a source of information and encouragement for mothers throughout the United States. The first edition of a popular manual, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, was published in 1958 and has sold over 2 million copies. With new groups in Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand, the organization changed its name in 1964 to La Leche League International (LLLI). By the mid-1980s, there were over 4,000 LLLI support groups in 48 countries.

In the developing world, health care professionals connected bottle-feeding to infant death and disease in the 1930s. In 1939, a British pediatrician practicing in Singapore made the first public statement addressing the problem in a speech titled Milk and Murder. In the 1960s, the formula industry embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign in the developing world. The breastfeeding movement gained momentum in the early 1970s when an exposé in the New Internationalist magazine and a book titled The Baby Killer sparked international outcry against formula companies. In 1976, Roman Catholic Sisters of the Precious Blood filed a lawsuit against Bristol Myers with support of other shareholders, resulting in an international investigation. In 1977, the Minneapolis group INFACT (Infant Formula Action Coalition) organized a citywide boycott of Nestlé products. Within months, the boycott spread throughout the United States and was soon initiated in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Activists wrote thousands of letters to Nestlé and implored politicians to act.

In 1978, Senator Edward Kennedy held a Senate hearing to examine the marketing practices of the formula industry. At his request and the urging of a growing movement, the World Health Organization convened a meeting in October 1979. After various drafts, the World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing Infant Formula in May 1981, the first international code for transnational corporations. Among other things, the code stated that companies should accurately label their products, minimize advertising, avoid distributing free samples to mothers, and maintain high quality standards. Due to corporate lobbying, the code was passed as a recommendation rather than a regulation, which is more difficult to enforce. In response, various grassroots organizations soon formed the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) to promote the code and monitor the formula industry's [Page 270]compliance with it. In 1984, the Nestlé boycott was suspended after the company agreed to abide by the code. After numerous warnings, the boycott was resumed in 1988 and was extended to other formula companies due to grievous code violations. The boycott has spread to numerous countries and remains in place to this day.

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