MARK BANNERMAN: It’s hard to imagine a more serene image than a mother breastfeeding a child.
But it seems the appeal is lost on many mothers, with only about a third of babies still drinking breast milk by the time they are three months old.
Advocates of breastfeeding say the advertising of milk formula could be to blame.
So, what do they want?
Well they’ve told the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing sitting in Sydney, that it should be banned.
But formula makers say there are already very few ads and doctors say it’s a mistake to think that women are so easily influenced.
Jane Cowan reports.
JANE COWAN: It might be the traditional symbol of motherhood, but breastfeeding advocates worry the breast is increasingly being replaced by the bottle.
The President of the Australian Breastfeeding Association Margaret Grove says the advertising of milk formulas is skewing women’s ideas of what’s normal and should be banned.
MARGARET GROVE: The problem is that in a very short while, really since the middle of last century, bottle-feeding seems to have become the norm which comes with enormous risks.
And I think what the problem is that while people in the know, know about the risks of not breastfeeding, most people see it as an equal choice.
And what we want is for mothers to make an informed choice and not be bombarded with symbols of bottles and advertising of formula and so on as if they’re an equal choice.
JANE COWAN: But the makers of milk formula say they don’t suggest their product is better than breast milk, and they’ve already gone far enough in restricting their own advertising.
They say Australian manufacturers have already agreed, voluntarily, not to spruik their own products to mothers. And that the only advertising that happens is done by retailers.
Janet Carey is the Executive Director of the Infant Formula Manufacturers’ Association of Australia.
JANET CAREY: Retailers can advertise not the benefits of infant formula or any claims about infant formula, but the have promotions for prices, you know under a normal Coles catalogue that you’ll get will have this week’s specials and sometimes those specials might be infant formula.
JANE COWAN: Do you think that kind of advertising is playing any role in the fact that a majority of mothers seem to be going off breastfeeding?
JANET CAREY: I don’t know, quite frankly and I don’t think anyone does. You know until you do some studies and try and work out what the evidence is about why mothers don’t breastfeed. At the moment any studies that have been done don’t point to the marketing of infant formula as having any effect on breastfeeding rates either in the past or currently.
JANE COWAN: But the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s Margaret Grove says letting retailers advertise baby formula goes against the international code for the marketing of breast milk substitutes, which Australia signed 25 years ago.
She says that code states health professionals should be the only ones providing information to mothers on breastfeeding.
And Margaret Grove says the code might apply to infant formulas, but that doesn’t stop ads for products called toddler milks.
MARGARET GROVE: What’s happened recently is that there have been a proliferation of all these toddler milks, which are totally unnecessary and it’s a bit of a loophole that they’ve found I think recently because the formula manufacturers aren’t allowed to advertise infant formula, but if you have a look in the supermarket shelves, the toddler milks have exactly the same branding on them as the infant formula. So it’s a bit of an indirect way of advertising formula.
JANE COWAN: The persuasive impact of marketing on breastfeeding rates is something that’s being considered by a House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing.
But the Australian Medical Association says the whole argument might be a storm in a teacup.
The AMA President Rosanna Capolingua doubts whether ads have much influence at all on mother’s decisions about breastfeeding.
ROSANNA CAPOLINGUA: Those choices are often made around other quite significant issues. The ability or difficulty in breastfeeding at the time of the birth of the baby and in the very short period of time after that when breastfeeding needs to be established. Issues around returning to work and being able to continue to breastfeed with those parameters. Having to supplement with formula. There are lots of other considerations when women are making that choice.
It would be best if we could encourage mothers to breastfeed beyond three months, certainly at least to six months. Six to eight months is a good period of time and some mums go on a bit further than that.
So if a third of mums are dropping out of breastfeeding by three months let’s look at what that reason, what the reason behind that is and try and support them through that time so that they can be encouraged to continue.
MARK BANNERMAN: AMA President Rosanna Capolingua ending that report from Jane Cowan.
