Gabrielle Palmer has been involved for more than 40 years in international efforts to stop the unethical promotion of breastmilk substitutes globally and also to support appropriate infant feeding.

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.

[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.

In 1974, when her two children were still small, Palmer read The Baby Killer, an influential 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.

It underwent a minor update when it was subsequently republished by HarperCollins in 1993 and a major revision for the Pinter & Martin edition that launched in 2009 and was reprinted in the same year, as well as in 2011 and 2016.