Delegates opposed the resolution, demanding that language calling on governments to “protect, promote and support breastfeeding” be deleted.
STORY AT-A-GLANCE According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 2011 and 2016, only 40 percent of infants under the age of 6 months were being exclusively breastfed, worldwide.
Thanks to growing awareness of the science behind the “breast is best” slogan, breastfeeding rates in the U.S. have risen from a low of 24 percent in 1971 to 81 percent in 2016.
The global goal is to get 70 percent of infants exclusively breastfed for the first six months by 2030. To achieve that, the World Health Assembly introduced a nonbinding resolution in early 2018 to encourage breastfeeding and stress the health benefits of breastfeeding.
In a move that shocked the world, U.S. delegates opposed the resolution, demanding that language calling on governments to “protect, promote and support breastfeeding” be deleted.
The American delegation threatened countries with sanctions lest they reject the resolution. It was even suggested that the U.S. might cut its financial support to the WHO. Russia ultimately introduced the resolution. What’s the optimal food for your newborn baby? Common sense would tell you that a mother’s breast milk is as optimal as infant nutrition could possibly get, yet that fact—indisputable as it may seem—is something that makers of infant formula have spent decades’ trying to sweep under the carpet.[1] Following the development of manufactured infant formula, mothers were told breastfeeding was unnecessary….