2023 LANCET SERIES ON breastfeeding

Contributed by Dr Chantell Witten (cbwitten@uwc.ac.za)

On 8 February 2023, the global launch event of the 2023 Lancet Series on Breastfeeding (https://www.thelancet. com/series/Breastfeeding-2023) took place in London at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, and online. The local launch event for South Africa took place at the University of the Western Cape, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Food Security ( https://foodsecurity.ac.za/news/ coe-fs-co-hosts-local-launch-of-2023lancet-series-on-breastfeeding/) on 10 February, 2023.

The 2023 Lancet Series on Breastfeeding published three papers, providing an indepth examination of how the marketing of commercial milk formula industry uses manipulative and insidious tactics to undermine mothers’ and society, in general, confidence in breastfeeding. The commercial milk formula industry’s nefarious and exploitative methods create an artificial demand for their products, thereby undermining breastfeeding. The papers in the Series outline the multifaceted and highly effective strategies used by commercial formula manufacturers to target parents, health-care professionals, and policy-makers. The industry’s dubious marketing practices—in breach of the breastfeeding Code, generates a revenue of about $55 billion each year.(https:// www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/ article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00118-6/ fulltext)

While breastfeeding has proven health benefits for both mothers and babies in high- and low-income settings alike, less than 50% of babies worldwide are breastfed according to WHO recommendations. For decades, the commercial milk formula industry has used underhand marketing strategies, designed to prey on parents’ fears and concerns, under the guise of a trustworthy source of information and care for mothers and babies.

( https://www.thelancet.com/ journals/lancet/ article/PIIS01406736(22)01931-6/fulltext)

Paper 3 exposes how the multibillion dollar industry that lobbies governments, often covertly via trade associations and front groups, is against strengthening breastfeeding protection laws and challenging food standard regulations (https://www.thelancet. com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS01406736(22)01933-X/fulltext). Under the leadership of Prof Tanya Doherty from the South African Medical Research Council, a full commentary on the series by a group of South African researchers and child rights advocates calls for a transformative breastfeeding agenda to stem the tide on commercial formula marketing (https://www.thelancet. com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS01406736(23)00095-8/fulltext). The 2023 Lancet Series re-affirms breastfeeding as the undisputed feeding option for infants and young child feeding and calls on governments to protect mothers and infants from human rights violations by the commercial formula companies.