<모유대체품 판촉에 관한 국제 규약>의 대한민국 내 입법화 운동의 역사

History of Legislative Initiative Incorporating <International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitute> in Republic of Korea : Challenges and Opportunities

The Republic of Korea is one of 70 countries with few provisions of the Code in law, as of 2018. Before the 1960s breastfeeding, in Korea, was the main feeding method with a 95% rate or over. Since the first domestic infant formula was produced in 1967, breastfeeding rate declined rapidly, with about 90% in the 1970s, 68.9% in 1982, 59.0% in 1985, 48.1% in 1988, 11.4% in 1994, 14.1% in 1997, and 10.2% in 2000. The drastic decline was due to various strategies to promote breastmilk substitute (BMS) used by four domestic BMS manufacturers from bribing, aggressive marketing to doctors and healthcare professionals, to providing free samples or sponsoring medical articles, to targeting mothers directly via advertisement or social media. Those onslaught tactics resulted in a very negative social perception of breastfeeding as “inferior . The first legislative prohibition for marketing of infant formulae was introduced in 1991. The continued effort of NGO to support breastfeeding paid off when the social perception of breastfeeding improved in the late 1990s and the breastfeeding rate increased. The rate of 5-6 month old baby being fed mainly by breastfeeding was 9.5% in 2000, 29.5% in 2003, 26.8% in 2006, and 51% in 2009. However further legislation of the Code was rendered slow with their ongoing unethical marketing, circumventing the ban by cross promotion of follow-on formulae and infant cereals for infant formulae, and colluding with doctors and postpartum care centers. The rate of 5-6 month old baby being fed by breastfeeding started to decline again as 32.3% in 2012, 28.8% in 2015, and 14.9% in 2018. While continued proposals for legislation have been made, most of them have not been implemented to date.