Gabrielle Palmer

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Gabrielle Palmer
Born (1947-03-03) 3 March 1947 (age 74)
London, England, United Kingdom
Occupationauthor, campaigner, nutritionist
NationalityBritish
Genrenon fiction
Subjectpublic health nutrition, breastfeeding
SpouseJohn George Palmer (married 1968)
Children2

Gabrielle Palmer BA, MSc has been involved in international efforts to stop the unethical promotion of breastmilk substitutes globally and to support appropriate infant feeding for over 40 years. She is the author of the seminal text, The Politics of Breastfeeding, now in its revised third edition and which has never been out of print.

Contents

Childhood and family life

Born in St Thomas's Hospital, Palmer spent her childhood in South London. She attended the Convent of Our Lady of Sion, Bayswater, London 1958 to 1965 and then studied at Manchester University (BA General Arts, 1966 to 1969) where she met John. They married in 1968 and in the early 1970s she became a National Childbirth Trust breastfeeding counsellor. [1]

Early professional life

Palmer's professional life began as a secondary school teacher (1969 to 1976) and then she worked as a Save the Children, Schools and Universities Organiser 1977 to 1980. The family moved to Mozambique in 1981 where Palmer volunteered (with International Voluntary Service) working in nutrition and education within various government institutions in Maputo including in an orphanage and hospitals. She ran classes for mothers of malnourished children to support complementary feeding classes using locally available foods and taught nutrition to student health workers. She observed that mothers can sustain breastfeeding, despite poor food intake, if the breastfeeding culture is not undermined by false information, whether commercial or medical. Palmer returned to the UK to study for an MSc Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1985) and is recognised as an authority on supporting breastfeeding and campaigner to stop unethical promotion of breastmilk substitutes. [2]

By taking away women’s primordial right to sustain their own children with their own milk, through the destruction of traditional knowledge and the reorganisation of work processes, dependency on a powerful dominant group is created.

Gabrielle Palmer [3] in The Politics of Breastfeeding

The making of a campaigner

In 1974, when her two children were still small, Palmer read The Baby Killer, a booklet by Mike Muller published by the charity War on Want [4] highlighting the aggressive promotion of breastmilk substitutes in regions where their use led to infection and death of infants. Palmer resolved to work against the unethical promotion of artificial milks over breastfeeding. She was instrumental in establishing the campaigning group Baby Milk Action (International Baby Food Action Network, IBFAN) based in Cambridge, UK and of which she is still a patron. [5] This work with Baby Milk Action included coordinating the UK boycott of Nestle products, raising awareness of the issue and of the WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in UK colleges, schools and institutions as well as engaging the attention of politicians and public figures.

She also served as a managing trustee for Health Books International in the days it was known as Teaching-aids at Low Cost, TALC.

Lecturing and teaching

She remained busy with campaigning, [6] designing training courses, teaching, consultancies and writing. From 1991–97 Palmer was co-director of the international short course, Breastfeeding: practice and policy at the Institute of Child Health, London. [7] During these years she contributed to the development of the WHO/UNICEF transferable courses designed for the ‘cascade’ training of trainers, globally. These included, Breastfeeding Counselling: a training Course, field testing the Chinese version in Taiwan in 1997; the UNICEF training course on the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and the WHO/UNICEF HIV and Infant Feeding course. In 1999 she was appointed HIV and Infant Feeding Officer in UNICEF HQ, New York. From 2001 to 2007 she worked as a part-time lecturer and tutor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as well as simultaneously serving on UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative Designation Committee, and continuing various freelance consultancy work. [8] She has worked and run short training courses for health professionals in 46 countries including Mongolia, Libya and North Korea. [9]

Books

In 1988 Pandora Press (Unwin Hyman) published Palmer’s first book, The Politics of Breastfeeding. It proved influential and became required reading on courses for midwives and others. It underwent a minor update when it was subsequently republished by Harper Collins in 1993 and a major revision for the Pinter & Martin edition which launched in 2009 and was reprinted in the same year as well as in 2011 and 2016. This new edition contains a new chapter Your Generous Donations Could do More Harm Than Good which is being used by the Professor of Nutrition at Columbia University to educate her students on nutrition in emergencies. [10] Palmer's key scholarly contributions and books are:

Related Research Articles

Infant formula Manufactured food designed for feeding infants

Infant formula, baby formula or just formula or baby milk, infant milk or first milk, is a manufactured food designed and marketed for feeding to babies and infants under 12 months of age, usually prepared for bottle-feeding or cup-feeding from powder or liquid. The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) defines infant formula as "a food which purports to be or is represented for special dietary use solely as a food for infants by reason of its simulation of human milk or its suitability as a complete or partial substitute for human milk".

Breast milk Milk produced by the mammary glands in the breast of a human female

Breast milk or mother's milk is milk produced by mammary glands, located in the breast of a human female. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns, containing fat, protein, carbohydrates and variable minerals and vitamins. Breast milk also contains factors that are important for implications protecting the infant against infection and inflammation, whilst also contributing to healthy development of the immune system and gut microbiome.

A boycott was launched in the United States on July 4, 1977, against the Swiss-based Nestlé corporation. The boycott expanded into Europe in the early 1980s and was prompted by concern about Nestlé's "aggressive marketing" of breast milk substitutes, particularly in underdeveloped countries. The boycott has been cancelled and renewed because of the business practices of Nestlé and other substitute manufacturers monitored by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). Organizers of the boycott state that substitutes for breast milk are worse for infants' health. As of 2013, the Nestlé boycott was coordinated by the International Nestlé Boycott Committee, whose secretariat was the British group Baby Milk Action.

Baby food

Baby food is any soft, easily consumed food other than breastmilk or infant formula that is made specifically for human babies between four and six months and two years old. The food comes in many varieties and flavors that are purchased ready-made from producers, or it may be table food eaten by the family that has been mashed or otherwise broken down.

The International Baby Food Action Network, IBFAN, consists of public interest groups working around the world to reduce infant and young child morbidity and mortality. IBFAN aims to improve the health and well-being of babies and young children, their mothers and their families through the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding and optimal infant feeding practices. IBFAN works for universal and full implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and Resolutions.

The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes is an international health policy framework for breastfeeding promotion adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1981. The Code was developed as a global public health strategy and recommends restrictions on the marketing of breast milk substitutes, such as infant formula, to ensure that mothers are not discouraged from breastfeeding and that substitutes are used safely if needed. The Code also covers ethical considerations and regulations for the marketing of feeding bottles and teats. A number of subsequent WHA resolutions have further clarified or extended certain provisions of the Code.

Derrick B. Jelliffe and his wife Eleanore. F. Patrice Jelliffe - known as Dick and Pat Jelliffe - were experts in tropical paediatrics and infant nutrition. They are most known for their seminal book, Human Milk in the Modern World, published by Oxford University Press in 1978, and for editing the mult-volume Advances in International Maternal and Child Health. The Jelliffes also wrote over 500 scholarly papers, often together and 22 books. They lived and worked in England, Africa, India, the Caribbean and settled in Los Angeles where he held the Chair in Public Health and Paediatrics at the University of California from 1972 to 1990.

The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a network of people working on a global scale to eliminate obstacles to breastfeeding and to act on the Innocenti Declaration. The groups within this alliance tackle the problems from a variety of perspectives or point of views, such as consumer advocates, mothers, and lactation consultants.

History and culture of breastfeeding

The history and culture of breastfeeding traces changing social, medical and legal attitudes to breastfeeding, the act of feeding a child breast milk directly from breast to mouth. Breastfeeding may be performed by the infant's mother or by a surrogate, typically called a wet nurse.

Breastfeeding difficulties Medical condition

Breastfeeding difficulties refers to problems that arise from breastfeeding, the feeding of an infant or young child with milk from a woman's breasts. Although babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk, and human breast milk is usually the best source of nourishment for human infants, there are circumstances under which breastfeeding can be problematic, or even in rare instances, contraindicated.

Breastfeeding Feeding of babies or young children with milk from a womans breast

Breastfeeding, also called nursing, is the process of feeding human breast milk to a child, either directly from the breast or by expressing the milk from the breast and bottle-feeding it to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's life and continue as often and as much as the baby wants. During the first few weeks of life babies may nurse roughly every two to three hours, and the duration of a feeding is usually ten to fifteen minutes on each breast. Older children feed less often. Mothers may pump milk so that it can be used later when breastfeeding is not possible. Breastfeeding has a number of benefits to both mother and baby, which infant formula lacks.

Human milk bank

A human milk bank or breast milk bank is a service which collects, screens, processes, and dispenses by prescription human milk donated by nursing mothers who are not biologically related to the recipient infant. The optimum nutrition for newborn infants is breastfeeding, if possible, for the first year. Human milk banks offer a solution to the mothers that cannot supply their own breast milk to their child, for reasons such as a baby being at risk of getting diseases and infections from a mother with certain diseases, or when a child is hospitalized at birth due to very low birth weight, and the mother cannot provide her own milk during the extended stay for reasons such as living far from the hospital.

Breastfeeding promotion

Breastfeeding promotion refers to coordinated activities and policies to promote health among women, newborns and infants through breastfeeding.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), also known as Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI), is a worldwide programme of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, launched in 1992 in India following the adoption of the Innocenti Declaration on breastfeeding promotion in 1990. The initiative is a global effort for improving the role of maternity services to enable mothers to breastfeed babies for the best start in life. It aims at improving the care of pregnant women, mothers and newborns at health facilities that provide maternity services for protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding, in accordance with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

Extended breastfeeding

In Western countries extended breastfeeding usually means breastfeeding after the age of 12 to 24 months, depending on the culture.

Infant nutrition is the description of the dietary needs of infants. A diet lacking essential calories, minerals, vitamins, or fluids is considered inadequate. Breast milk provides the best nutrition for these vital first months of growth when compared to infant formula. For example, breastfeeding aids in preventing anemia, obesity, and sudden infant death syndrome; and it promotes digestive health, immunity, intelligence, and dental development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively feeding an infant breast milk, or iron-fortified formula, for the first six months of life and continuing for one year or longer as desired by infant and mother. Infants are usually not introduced to solid foods until four to six months of age. Historically, breastfeeding infants was the only option for nutrition otherwise the infant would perish. Breastfeeding is rarely contraindicated, but is not recommended for mothers being treated for cancer, those with active tuberculosis, HIV, substance abuse, or leukemia. Clinicians can be consulted to determine what the best source of infant nutrition is for each baby.

Breastfeeding and medications is the description of the medications that can be used by a breastfeeding mother with no or few consequences and those medications which are recommended to be avoided. Some medications are excreted in breastmilk. Almost all medicines pass into breastmilk in small amounts. Some have no effect on the baby and can be used while breastfeeding. The National Institutes of Medicine (US) maintains a database containing information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. It includes information on the levels of such substances in breast milk and infant blood, and the possible adverse effects in the nursing infant. Suggested therapeutic alternatives to those drugs are provided, where appropriate. All data are derived from reliable sources. Some medications and herbal supplements can be of concern. This can be because the drug can accumulate in breastmilk or have effects on the infant and the mother. Those medications of concern are those medications used to treat substance and alcohol addiction. Other medications of concern are those that are used in smoking cessation. Pain medications and antidepressants need evaluation.

Amy Brown is a Welsh psychologist. She is a Professor of Child Public Health at Swansea University who specialises in maternal and child health, particularly nutrition. She campaigns to bring about better support for women who want to breastfeed and to improve the UK public's attitude towards breastfeeding in public.

Delayed onset of lactation

Delayed onset of lactation (DOL) describes the absence of copious milk secretion within the first 72 hours following childbirth. It affects around 20-40% of lactating women, the prevalence differs among distinct populations.

Establishment of breastfeeding

Establishment of breastfeeding refers to the initiation of providing breast milk of mother to baby. According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), breastfeeding is the best way to provide nourishment, including essential nutrients, energy and antibodies, to infants and toddlers. The start of breastfeeding is supported by the milk production which depends on the development of internal and external breast structure and hormonal control on milk secretion. Besides milk supply, adopting the correct approach of breastfeeding helps build up the maternal bond, which in turn promotes breastfeeding. Not only does nursing strengthen the mother-child relationship, but it also improves the intelligence and immunity of breastfed children and diminishes breastfeeding mothers' risks to have ovarian and breast cancer.

References

  1. "Why The Politics of Breastfeeding Matter interview in Juno magazine" . Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  2. Complementary Feeding: Nutrition, Culture and Politics. Pinter & Martin, UK. 2019. p. 128. ISBN   9781905177424.
  3. The Politics of Breastfeeding. Pinter & Martin, UK. 2009. p. 424. ISBN   9781905177165.
  4. "War on Want influential campaign leaflet" . Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  5. "Babymilk Action list of patrons" . Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  6. "Guardian contributor bio" . Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  7. "Feeding children well interview" . Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  8. "Publisher's author bios" . Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  9. "An interview with Gabrielle Palmer, Campaigner, Author and Nutritionist who learned from women around the world" . Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  10. "Audio of a talk in Cambridge" . Retrieved 5 February 2021.