According to a new WHO and UNICEF report, over 51% of parents of newborns and pregnant females are exposed to coercive formula milk marketing. Marketers of these items will use any means necessary to safeguard their $55 billion business. Their acts endanger the safety of children’s nutrition and contravene governments’ global duties.

Discussions with parents, expectant mothers, and medical experts in eight countries were used to compile the paper on how advertising of baby formula affects our preferences on breastfeeding. It exposes the formula milk industry’s persistent and unscrupulous advertising practices.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded regulation on these marketing tactics to be “urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.” He also stated that “This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive.”

According to the WHO-UNICEF report, formula companies hold counselling for expectant moms, use hotline numbers, hold multiple campaigns, and give out free specimens for trial. It is a severe breach of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes that expectant moms and health professionals are regularly bombarded with scientifically baseless publications.

In Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, researchers questioned over 8,000 new families and expectant mothers, as well as 300 medical practitioners. According to the report, over 90% of expectant women in the UK, Vietnam, and China said they were more likely to choose baby formula feeding.

According to Catherine Russell, Executive Director UNICEF, “False and misleading messages about formula feeding are a substantial barrier to breastfeeding, which we know is best for babies and mothers.” 

The majority of women reported a high willingness to breastfeed solely in all nations surveyed, ranging from 49% in Morocco to 98% in Bangladesh.

The WHO-UNICEF report explains how a steady stream of misleading advertising information about breastfeeding and breast milk is promoting misconceptions and weakening women’s self-confidence to effectively breastfeed.