A Canadian living in France for more than 25 years, Juanita discovered breastfeeding with her three children and has never looked back.
She became a La Leche League Leader in 1997, and served on the boards of LLL France 2004-2008 and LLL Europe 2011-2018. She has been the regional representative of LLL Europe to WABA since 2007. Juanita became a lactation consultant in 2003 (IBCLC), recertifying in 2008 and 2013.
Juanita was the coordinator for the Journée Internationale de l’Allaitement (‘JIA’ – International Breastfeeding Conference for health professionals organized by LLL France) in 2003 and 2008. She helped create and implement the Peer Counsellor Programme in France (Programme relais allaitement- Prall).
The WHO Code is one of her passions! She has spoken on the Code at conferences around the world. Member of the Coordination française pour l’allaitement maternel (CoFam) since 2007, she was head of the Task Force on the Code and ethical questions. As a member of IBFAN *and GIFA, she was given the opportunity to participate in international meetings of the Codex Alimentarius and the OECD in Paris, as well as in week-long IBFAN conferences in Montecatini, Italy in 2007, and in Geneva in 2008. She also attended the Committee on the Convention on Rights of the Child in Geneva for IBFAN and helped prepare a country report on France underlining the importance of breastfeeding and the need to apply the Code (2009). She is an active member of IBFAN’s Global Working Group on Contaminants in Breastmilk. In 2018, she represented LLLI at the second NetCode meeting in Geneva.
The International Code on the Marketing of breast milk substitutes is the very cornerstone of breastfeeding protection, promotion and support, and an integral part of infant and young feeding policies around the world; yet it is often misunderstood or considered to be an out of date document with little relevance to breastfeeding issues today. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Code is updated regularly with additional resolutions voted at World Health Assemblies every two years, and covers far more than the marketing of breast milk substitutes in the first six months of life, but promotes optimal nutrition practices up to 36 months, and addresses conflict of interest with infant food companies. Indeed, the rapidly growing global market of breast milk substitutes, estimated at more than $70 billion in 2019, continues to undermine breastfeeding through its evermore aggressive and omnipresent marketing techniques, focused on parents, health professionals and health systems. The stakes are high – understanding and implementing the Code is an essential step towards ensuring optimal nutrition for infants and young children, whether breastfed or formula-fed.
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