"Formula for Disaster."

In the early 1990's I lived in the Philippines for a year. I loved it. It's a gorgeous, diverse country, and I made some wonderful friends.

It's also a battleground in the fight against aggressive marketing practices used by pharmeceutical companies to promote formula in developing countries. A new film by UNICEF Philippines called "Formula for Disaster" tackles this topic. The film is broken into five parts on YouTube, and I linked to the third part.

In most developing countries there is a strong culture of support for breastfeeding. But in the Philippines that tradition is falling apart. According to the WHO, the length of exclusive breastfeeding has declined from an average of 1.4 months in 1998 to just 24 days in 2003. Only 16% of babies are exclusively breastfed for 4-5 months.

Here in the U.S., where the question of "breast vs. bottle" is framed in terms of choice, we tend to forget that in the developing world, where water supplies are often contaminated, infant feeding is often a question of life or death. The WHO says that in the Philippines 16,000 child deaths per year are attributable to inappropriate feeding, including the used of infant formula.

The Philippines has a "milk code" which prohibits aggressive marketing practices, but violations are rampant. And recent efforts to strengthen the code were met with opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. You may recognize a few of the tactics because they're used here, too.

"Formula for Disaster" is part of a multi-pronged effort to "restore the breastfeeding culture" in the Philippines, which includes creating "breastfeeding friendly malls" and the recent record setting national nurse in.

Thanks to blog reader Alexis, who works at UNICEF Philippines and keeps a personal blog on breastfeeding in the Philippines, for alerting me to the new film!