The late Senator Ted Kennedy's legacy is so vast.
But there is one accomplishment that probably hasn't been mentioned in the last week of memorials, yet has been life saving for mothers and babies in the developing world.
Senator Kennedy was instrumental in the development of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
In Selling Out Mothers and Babies, Marsha Walker writes about Senator Kennedy's role in the development of the Code:
By the 1970's, concerned health professionals and citizens realized that there was a dramatic decline in breastfeeding throughout the world and a concomitant increase in infants deaths. At least one and a half million babies a year are dying due to artificial feeding, especially in poor areas of the world. Breast milk was being replaced with formula advertised on billboards with fat happy babies and by the giving of free samples of formula to mothers before they left the hospital. In some countries, formula company employees dressed up as nurses were handing out the samples in the maternity unit. When mothers found their milk supply suppressed and unable to afford to purchase expensive formula or find clean water, their infants began to sicken and die...
In order to propel this issue into the national consciousness and validate its legitimacy, a Senate hearing was convened in 1978, presided over by Senator Edward Kennedy. The public exposure of the unethical marketing practices of all formula companies was an embarassment and a public relations disaster to the infant formula manufacturers. Senator Kennedy agreed to refer the issue to a formal body and wrote to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) suggesting that that organization sponsor a conference to discuss the breast milk substitute issue and explore the prospect of developing an international code.
This gave rise to the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Subsitutes, developed by the WHO, the United Nations, and UNICEF. It was adopted as a voluntary code of marketing practices in a vote of 188 countries to one (can you guess which country that was?) at the World Health Assembly. Though weaker than advocates had wanted, the Code has put some limits on this marketing, and undoubtedly has saved babies' lives in the process.
Big thanks to Andi Silverman for bringing this connection to my attention, and to Marsha for pointing me to this section of her report.
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