There is a wonder food available across the globe that can prevent and fight infection. Requiring no packaging, created on demand and relatively cheap (depending on your work commitments), it is a sustainability dream come true. Let me introduce you to breast milk. Decades of scientific research have again and again cited it as the healthiest option for babies. Meanwhile, countries where some people don’t have access to clean water have been encouraged to halt disingenuous advertising from corporate giants of formula milk. Until Donald Trump, that is.
As scores of governments sought to approve a World Health Organization resolution calling on countries to “protect, promote and support breastfeeding” while limiting the promotion of milk substitutes, Trump’s administration tried (unsuccessfully) to stop them. Breastfeeding remains political. Not least because companies such as Abbott Laboratories, one of the funders of Trump’s inauguration and a feature in the $70bn (£53bn) baby food market, would lose out.
Ever willing to fly in the face of experts, Trump’s administration wanted to water down the wording. When this proved unsuccessful, the New York Times reported, it turned to threats. Ecuador was warned, apparently, that military aid would be withdrawn and harsh trade measures instituted if it did not drop the resolution.
While colonisalisation has ended, neoimperialism thrives. The US has brazenly tried using its diplomatic power to force weaker nations to grant access to their markets, even if it means they will be endangering their babies. The Lancet found in 2016 that the deaths of 823,000 children and 20,000 of their mothers could be avoided – and $300bn saved – through universal breastfeeding.
Profit before people is a simple motto to live by if the people being sacrificed are not your own. It is the most impoverished countries that are at greatest risk. Public health initiatives for women in wealthier countries have told them that their bodies alone – where possible – are enough for our babies to thrive. Our fight has centred on the ability to breastfeed anywhere without the hypocritical contempt of a public seemingly at ease with displayed breasts solely as sexual objects. Trump’s attempt this week reminds us that breastfeeding is political for other reasons, too. This example shines a light on the way neoimperialism controls the autonomy of poorer countries – and shows that it is often women and children who pay the price.
Chitra Ramaswamy is away
