Infant health should come before corporate wealth.
Add your name now to tell infant formula companies to put babies before profits!: https://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=13863
Recent reports have exposed what we have known for years:
Infant formula is big business, and less breastfeeding means more profits for industry. That’s why the infant formula industry is doing everything in its power to weaken global health policies to undermine breastfeeding and rake in more profit.
Companies like Nestlé and Abbott spend billions every year to lobby Congress against common-sense policies that would increase breastfeeding while at the same time deceptively market their expensive products directly to parents.
Parents deserve — and need to receive — reliable, commercial-free information about their infant feeding options. Many countries around the globe already have passed laws to protect parents from predatory infant formula marketing. But in the U.S. — as a result of formula industry lobbying — this commonsense legislation has been pushed far out of reach.
Add your name now to tell infant formula manufacturers to put babies before profits!: https://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=13863
Keep Infant Formula Marketing Out of Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare facilities shouldn’t market any commercial products. They should provide only the best, evidence-based medical care. Yet, many facilities and healthcare providers are co-opted by infant formula companies to market their products: in the United States, the majority of birthing hospitals dispense industry-sponsored samples of formula to new mothers after they give birth. Mothers who receive formula samples in hospital are less likely to breastfeed exclusively and more likely to breastfeed for shorter durations. Yet, all major healthcare provider organizations recommend breastfeeding for at least the first six months of life. It’s best for babies, mothers, parents and communities.
Public Citizen is fighting to keep hospital obstetrics wards commercial-free: no more marketing of potentially harmful products to new parents. Along with over 100 other organizations, we are calling on the over two-thirds of hospitals in the United States that distribute industry-sponsored formula samples to new moms to immediately stop this practice. And, we’re demanding that formula companies — primarily Big Pharma and Big Food corporations — stop this practice, which violates the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
Read Public Citizen’s new report on infant formula marketing in public hospitals.
Are you a healthcare provider? Take the pledge to keep formula marketing out of your office.
Learn more about infant formula marketing in clinics.
Read Public Citizen’s report on infant formula marketing in top-ranked hospitals.