Progress on breastfeeding in Bangladesh undermined by aggressive formula milk marketing  WHO, UNICEF

News Desk    |    ০৭:৫১ পিএম, ২০২২-০২-২৩

New report details exploitative practices employed by $55 billion formula industry, compromising child nutrition, violating international commitments

GENEVA/NEW YORK/DHAKA, 23 February 2022 

 
More than half of parents and pregnant women (51 per cent) surveyed for a new WHO/UNICEF report say they have been targeted with marketing from formula milk companies, much of which is in breach of international standards on infant feeding practices. 

The report, How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women and health workers in eight countries, including in Bangladesh. It uncovers systematic and unethical marketing strategies used by the formula milk industry – now worth a staggering US$55 billion – to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions.

In Bangladesh, 65 per cent of women exclusively breastfeed their babies up until five months old, the highest in all the countries surveyed. Although women in Bangladesh are less directly exposed to traditional marketing of formula milk compared to other countries, many health professionals, including doctors, are influenced by the marketing and view breast-milk as inadequate: Nearly 60 per cent of mothers have been recommended a formula milk product by a health professional. As a result, despite 98 per cent of pregnant women expressing a strong desire to breastfeed, only 65 per cent go on to do so exclusively after giving birth.
 

“The overwhelming majority of women in Bangladesh want to breastfeed, yet they often do not receive the support they need. Instead, marketing of formula milk sows the seeds of fear and doubt. This can only be overcome when mothers are given information based on science, not profits,” said Veera Mendonca, Deputy Representative of UNICEF Bangladesh. 

Across the surveyed countries, the report finds that industry marketing techniques include unregulated and invasive online targeting; sponsored advice networks and helplines; promotions and free gifts; and practices to influence training and recommendations among health workers. The messages that parents and health workers receive are often misleading, scientifically unsubstantiated, and violate the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) – a landmark public health agreement passed by the World Health Assembly in 1981 to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry.

“WHO’s guidance on breastfeeding to the infant and young children, and Breast Milk Substitute (BMS) Code monitoring is very clear. It is vital to ensure that breastfeeding mothers do not get targeted by the industry and their marketing and promoting of formula-feeding do not jeopardize breastfeeding by feeding mothers. The need to address predatory social media marketing of BMS is even more urgent. The growing aggressive marketing, especially during this pandemic, highlights the need for robust implementation, stronger enforcement, and monitoring of Bangladesh national code legislations to protect families from false claims about the safety of breast-milk substitutes,” said Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh. 

According to the report – which surveyed 8,500 parents and pregnant women, and 300 health workers in cities across Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam – exposure to formula milk marketing reaches 84 per cent of all women surveyed in the United Kingdom; 92 per cent of women surveyed in Viet Nam and 97 per cent of women surveyed in China, increasing their likelihood of choosing formula feeding. 

“This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Regulations on exploitative marketing must be urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.”
 

Across all countries included in the survey, women expressed a strong desire to breastfeed exclusively, ranging from 49 per cent of women in Morocco to 98 per cent in Bangladesh. Yet the report details how a sustained flow of misleading marketing messages is reinforcing myths about breastfeeding and breast-milk, and undermining women’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully. These myths include the necessity of formula in the first days after birth, the inadequacy of breast-milk for infant nutrition, that specific infant formula ingredients are proven to improve child development or immunity, the perception that formula keeps infants fuller for longer, and that the quality of breast-milk declines with time.
 

“False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a substantial barrier to breastfeeding, which we know is best for babies and mothers,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.