The benefits of Breast Milk and Sexism in the developing countries

I thought I would share this picture from my course as I thought it was quite thought provoking. This is a picture of a woman taken by UNICEF in Pakistan. Her children that she is carrying are twins, one boy (left) and the other girl (right). The woman was told she cannot feed both of her children on breast milk. The boy has been feed breast milk all his life whilst the girl was fed formula milk. The girl died after this photo was taken the next day. What does this picture show? Two things:
1. That breast milk provides more nutrients and is disease free than compared to formula milk mixed with depleted and inadequate water supplies.
2. The cultural sexism towards girls in the region. A girl will almost always be sacrificed for the life of a boy in the developing world. Even if she was to live, her life would be governed to serve the male dominated society.
So three things to learn from this:
1. BREAST IS BEST! If you can then feed your child or future child breast milk, it has far more nutrition benefits, prevents diseases past from mother to child, cost effective.
2. What you can do now....boycott the food companies with a large presence in the formula industry present in these countries with highly aggressive marketing strategies *cough* Nestle *cough*.
3. Appreciate your daughters or future daughters. For in another life, their world and way of life could have been very different. No one should be a sacrifice for another life and the decision (if there was to be a decision) should not be made on sex.