The One Million Campaign

The “ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN: Support Women to Breastfeed” stems from a global initiative launched by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) – Asia. The campaign cites some staggering statistics: every hour 700 babies in their first year of life die. Of those, 450 are less than one month old. (Those of us in the United States should not be duped into a false sense of security — in the most recent comparison made with data for the year 2004, our infant mortality rate ranked 29th in the world, tied with Poland and Slovakia. The death rate in 2005 was 6.86 infants per 1,000). Research shows us that thousands of babies could be saved by good breastfeeding practices.

So what can you do to support breastfeeding through the One Million Campaign?

1. Sign the petition addressed to world leaders:

As citizens, we call for a stop to commercial interference in infant nutrition, the strict implementation of the International Code for Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and ensuring support for women to breastfeed. We urge you to create/implement legislation that restricts infant milk manufacturers from promoting their products as breastmilk substitutes/baby foods, to have a budgeted plan of action to promote and support women for optimal breastfeeding and to ensure breastfeeding friendly workplaces with adequate nursing breaks in the public and private sector so that working women are not forced to abandon breastfeeding.

2. Spread the word about the campaign!

3. Pledge to support at least one other woman in her breastfeeding experience.

4. Upload videos and pictures related to the campaign.

5. Watch for other events in which to participate. Campaign organizers say:

The campaign will take the form of national petitions, rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, forming human chains, breastfeeding sit ins, maintaining “Hall of Shame” and “Hall of Fame” for the corporate sector, and other creative and innovative methods of keeping national and global attention on the challenges faced by women in breastfeeding. The campaign will mobilise people for national and international action to create a PUSH to support women.

Will you join the campaign? I have signed the petition (it only took a second), I am spreading the word, and I pledge to support other women in breastfeeding. What will you do?