One Million Campaign for Breastfeeding

Please join me in supporting the One Million Campaign at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.onemillioncampaign.org%2Fen%2FDetails_Petitions.aspx    I just signed on. It took less than two minutes.    The key fact for me is that the goal of this campaign is to present the one million signatures to the world health leaders at the World Health Assembly's meeting this May. That's NEXT MONTH! We need some "viral" action to reach the goal of one million signatures.   As you may know, the WHA meets every year in Geneva, bringing together Ministers of Health and their representatives from all the countries in the United Nations. It is the WHA that passed the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1981 (with the USA as the sole opposing vote) and it is the WHA that revisits the Code every second year to update it and to attempt to close loopholes. The formula makers are there every year, too.   This global meeting is a chance to target health leaders-people who have the influence to make a difference for mothers and babies in every country. The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), who organized the One Million Campaign, has been showing up at the WHA ever since 1981, representing the rest of us who can't make it to Geneva, and speaking up to remind the WHA that it has a responsibility to protect mothers and babies from aggressive marketing of products that interfere with breastfeeding.    Your signature on the One Million Campaign is a way to say "Thanks" to the activists who have defended the Code since 1981. Your signature is a way to say "Sorry" for the US government's original vote against the Code and its notable lack of support for the Code for almost 30 years.    Please join me in signing, and tell your friends. Feel free to spread this email around.     "When she gives birth, every woman has the potential resource of breastmilk for two years or more. This ample food resource is perfectly targeted, already distributed to households with the need, and should be controlled by the mother and baby." --Helen Armstrong (1995)    Breastfeeding as the foundation of care. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, United Nations Univ Press, 16:4, 299-312.