The Trade Practices Commission, a statutory body established to monitor marketing and trading arrangements, is set to ratify an agreement that will ban advertising and promotion of infant milk formulae to the general public. The agreement was entered voluntarily by the nation's six manufacturers and importers of infant milk formulae—Abbott Australasia, Mead Johnson, Sharpe Laboratories, Douglas Pharmaceuticals, Nestle Australia, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals—with the federal ministers for health and consumer affairs. The unspoken threat of government regulation did not need to be enforced. Apart from the ban on advertising to the public, the agreement states that information provided to health-care professionals by manufacturers and importers about infant milk formulae must be scientific and factual, and it prohibits health-care professionals from accepting incentives to promote or sell infant formulae. It also requires that specified information be included in any educational material provided to consumers. The agreement has its genesis in the World Health Organisation's International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which Australia ratified in 1981. An earlier agreement, based loosely on the WHO code, was rejected by the Trade Practices Commission in 1989 because restrictions on advertising made it difficult for consumers to find the cheapest brand. Furthermore, the Commission believed that without the ability to advertise on price, manufacturers would have no incentive to minimise cost. This new agreement allows manufacturers to advertise on the shop floor on price only, so consumers will be able to choose on the basis of perceived value for money. But former advertising ploys—typically photos of well-nourished babies gurgling their way through a bottle of formula, backed by gorgeous mothers with diaphanous skin—are prohibited.As in most industrialised nations, breastfeeding in Australia is continuing its resurgence. According to the Nursing Mothers Association of Australia, breastfeeding started to decline in the mid to late 1950s and reached its nadir in 1972, when only 19% of mothers breastfed on leaving hospital. The latest figures available show that 86% of mothers now breastfeed when leaving hospital, although only 39% of babies are breastfed at three months. The Association say the six week to three month period is crucial—that is the time when mothers decide that their attempts to feed have not been wholly successful or they return to work. In Australia's present economic pickle, women are returning to work as early as possible. The Better Health Commission, an initiative of the federal government, has set a target for the year 2000, when it hopes that 80% of mothers will be breastfeeding at three months. That will only be achieved if the economy improves, so women do not have to rush back into the workforce, or if workplace reform makes it easier for breastfeeding women to work and working women to breastfeed.
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