Despite increasing evidence about the value and importance of breastfeeding, less than half of the world's infants and youngchildren (aged 0-36 months) are breastfed as recommended. This Series paper examines the ...Despite increasing evidence about the value and importance of breastfeeding, less than half of the world's infants and youngchildren (aged 0-36 months) are breastfed as recommended. This Series paper examines the social, political, and economic reasonsfor this problem. First, this paper highlights the power of the commercial milk formula (CMF) industry to commodify the feedingof infants and young children;influence policy at both national and international levels in ways that grow and sustain CMF markets;and externalise the social, environmental, and economic costs of CMF. Second, this paper examines how breastfeeding isundermined by economic policies and systems that ignore the value of care work by women, including breastfeeding, and by theinadequacy of maternity rights protection across the world, especially for poorer women. Third, this paper presents three reasonswhy health systems often do not provide adequate breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support. These reasons are thegendered and biomedical power systems that deny women-centred and culturally appropriate care;the economic and ideologicalfactors that accept, and even encourage, commercial influence and conflicts of interest;and the fiscal and economic policies thatleave governments with insufficient funds to adequately protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. We outline six sets of widerangingsocial, political, and economic reforms required to overcome these deeply embedded commercial and structural barriersto breastfeeding.展开更多
文摘Despite increasing evidence about the value and importance of breastfeeding, less than half of the world's infants and youngchildren (aged 0-36 months) are breastfed as recommended. This Series paper examines the social, political, and economic reasonsfor this problem. First, this paper highlights the power of the commercial milk formula (CMF) industry to commodify the feedingof infants and young children;influence policy at both national and international levels in ways that grow and sustain CMF markets;and externalise the social, environmental, and economic costs of CMF. Second, this paper examines how breastfeeding isundermined by economic policies and systems that ignore the value of care work by women, including breastfeeding, and by theinadequacy of maternity rights protection across the world, especially for poorer women. Third, this paper presents three reasonswhy health systems often do not provide adequate breastfeeding protection, promotion, and support. These reasons are thegendered and biomedical power systems that deny women-centred and culturally appropriate care;the economic and ideologicalfactors that accept, and even encourage, commercial influence and conflicts of interest;and the fiscal and economic policies thatleave governments with insufficient funds to adequately protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. We outline six sets of widerangingsocial, political, and economic reforms required to overcome these deeply embedded commercial and structural barriersto breastfeeding.
