Breastfeeding and mothers’ milk is presently not counted in food systems or the economy but should be. The Mothers’ Milk Tool will help.

Updated February 2022!

This quick guide summarizes the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (The Code) and relevant resolutions of the World Health Assembly that help protect breastfeeding around the globe.

Alive & Thrive has launched a special collection of resources on the BMS Code, featuring resources from various organizations around the world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers and practitioners must learn from mistakes made during the HIV pandemic, when breastfeeding was undermined through isolating infants from their mothers, and formula feeding resulted in more infant deaths than the disease.

Breastfeeding is one of the best buys in global health to improve social, health, and economic development outcomes. Globally, improving breastfeeding practices could save more than 820,000 lives annually—87 percent of them infants under six months of age.

A billion dollars and two thousand lives, every day. This impactful study, which is the foundation for Alive and Thrive’s online tool, examines the human and economic costs of not breastfeeding.