This weekends news about the United Nations-Affiliated World Health Assembly in Geneva was disheartening. Among the talks of soda tax and the distribution of lifesaving medicines to third world countries, was the topic of global support for breastfeeding mothers. The United States opposed the resolution to help promote, support, and protect those who chose to breast-feed. Despite U.S. tactics, the resolution passed.
In several countries, formula is either to costly, or the water is not clean enough to use safely in formulas. In this case, WHO asked for countries to help educate and support those families who wished to breastfeed to save money or did not have access to clean water. This resolution was backed by centuries of research noting the benefits of breastmilk both to the mother and the baby.
While the attempts to discourage support for breastfeeding women failed, the whole situation left women upset. It isn’t a matter of formula verses breastfeeding, it is the notion that a country would take away support for women who wished to breastfeed. Even though not every woman is able to breast-feed, those that choose to do so should have “the choice and access to alternatives for the health of their babies, and not to be stigmatized for the ways in which they are able to do so” (New York Times, 2018).
Original Articles:
Jacobs, Andrew. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World Health Officials (July 8, 2018). The New Your Times.
apothoriffic.com 