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Lactivism 101
5 Ways to Support Breastfeeding By Debora Geary
. So far, women are getting organized at 23 locations in the United States and Canada (the United States is lagging far behind, so maybe your town would be a good location).
Every woman breastfeeding can make a difference. "We had a community in northern BC (British Columbia) who had a low breastfeeding rate," says Jones. "On the day of the Challenge they had one mom breastfeeding. That one mom was on the front page of their paper, and this resulted in the starting of a breastfeeding support group with all the pregnant women in that town being invited to join. You never know what will happen!"
Other organizations also organize public breastfeeding events. Check out ProMom's NurseOut during Breastfeeding Week in early August. Last year they had groups nursing in local shopping malls and Wal-Marts all across the United States.
The World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations and UNICEF, have defined what they believe to be acceptable behavior for marketing baby formula in the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. While the United States voted against the Code in 1981, 13 years later under the Clinton administration, it became the last country in the World Health Assembly to get on board. The Code includes such provisions as: NO provision of free samples to mothers, NO promotion of products in health care facilities and NO pictures of babies on formula containers. Twenty-two years after the Code came to be, it is clear that formula companies are still in significant violation of these provisions, and the United States is not doing a lot about it. 
Which leaves moms. There are many ways to support better adoption of the Code in this country and internationally. One way is to become a Code Monitor through Baby Milk Action
