Zahra Shafei, cultural researcher
Today, the global infant formula market is a colossal industry worth over $80 billion, growing at an annual rate of around 10%. Nestlé, a company that owns more than 8,000 brands worldwide, claims a massive share of this profit.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Nestlé faced widespread public backlash over its questionable practices in promoting and selling formula in developing countries. The scandal erupted when it was revealed that the Swiss multinational had bribed doctors and celebrities to endorse its products, misled the public through aggressive marketing, and lied about the nutritional value of its formula. Nestlé’s dangerous and deceptive campaign spread the false notion that its formula could not only replace breast milk but, in some cases, be superior to it.
In impoverished regions of Asia and Africa, regions already plagued by malnutrition, Nestlé distributed free samples in hospitals and sent female marketers to mothers’ bedsides to encourage formula use. But once the samples ran out, many mothers could no longer breastfeed naturally, as their milk secretion had diminished. Formula prices quickly soared. Metal cans replaced warm embraces, and a terrifying nightmare unfolded before mothers’ eyes: Their children were starving. To stretch the expensive formula, mothers diluted it with extra water; often this very water was a scarce resource. In a 1978 US hearing on health and scientific research, Dr. Alan Jackson testified that mothers were using cans meant to last three days for one child over two weeks for two children. Clean drinking water was unavailable, sterilizing bottles by boiling was nearly impossible, and mothers couldn’t follow the instructions printed on the cans. Feeding infants became a nightmare: Diarrhea, vomiting, malnutrition, and death.
Children starved and died from improper feeding while Nestlé’s colorful ads continued to promise “healthy, chubby babies” through “modern infant nutrition.”
After World War II, many Western families gradually transitioned from breastfeeding to formula. It was marketed as more modern, convenient, and scientifically approved. Formula feeding became a symbol of progress and trust in modern science. Young mothers in the West, bombarded by medical advice, journals, and pharmaceutical ads, began to believe their bodies were no longer capable of fully nourishing their babies, and that they needed the scientific concoctions offered by corporations.
In Iran, during the Westernized Pahlavi regime, negative propaganda against breastfeeding was widespread. As Imam Khamenei once noted, “In the previous regime, it became common for mothers to avoid breastfeeding, imitating European women.” The Pahlavi regime blindly copied Western culture, convincing Iranian women that breastfeeding was outdated and unmodern. Formula was introduced as a symbol of civilization, progress, and convenience, pushing aside Iran’s rich Islamic and cultural traditions around motherhood and child-rearing. But what was marketed as “progress” soon revealed its true face. Rising digestive issues, allergies, immune deficiencies, and developmental disorders in children led scientific studies to increasingly affirm the superiority of breast milk over formula.
Over the decades, mothers saw firsthand that their children were deprived of breast milk —not for their well-being, but as customers in a profit-driven scheme. Distrust began to grow. Women listened to each other’s painful stories: childbirth becoming a cold, scheduled process; their bodies turned into medical battlegrounds; strangers invading their privacy; procedures performed without full explanation; early cessation of breastfeeding; excessive prescriptions of supplements and medications; and hospitals treating mothers and babies with mechanical indifference. From these experiences, a bitter question emerged: Where do my child’s and my well-being fit into the profit equation of hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical firms?
When maternal instinct challenges the system
This distrust has taken a more tangible form in recent years. In the U.S. and parts of Europe, home births have surged to unprecedented levels. Between 2016 and 2020, home births in the U.S. rose by 56%, reaching a 30-year high. Women, tired of the cold, clinical hospital experience, are turning to traditional midwives and independent birth attendants—spaces where childbirth is seen as sacred and natural, and where motherhood, health, and science are redefined through trust and awareness. Breastfeeding is part of this maternal response to a materialistic health system. Mothers, trusting their bodies, not only nourish their children but also reject the deceptive schemes of companies like Nestlé. Natural feeding is part of rebuilding the intimate bond between mother and child—a bond that capitalism has tried to commodify.
During World Breastfeeding Week, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the role of mothers, especially in the West. In societies where capitalism turns medicine into industry and mothers into consumers, the return to natural childbirth and breastfeeding is revolutionary. While pharmaceutical and food companies try to convince mothers they can’t be “good moms” without their products, women who listen to their inner voice and trust their nature are actively rejecting these narratives. Breastfeeding reclaims the first link between mother and child from the grip of corporate medicine, restoring it to a divine, natural, and healthy relationship. In this toxic environment, choosing breast milk over formula is a reclaiming of maternal instinct against a system that seeks to strip away autonomy and alienate women from their own bodies.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
References:
https://www.ranker.com/list/nestle-baby-formula-boycott/melissa-sartore
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