THELASMOS GALLERY

PHILATELIC SECTION

Philately has lasted over 50 years from its original history until images on Breastfeeding were incorporated. We firstly saw post stamps that showed suckling mothers from the second to third decade of the XX Century in Europe. Some of them were originated for campaigns intended to protect mothers and infants during both World Wars – since morbidity and mortality among artificial fed infants were overwhelming – others were a simple representation of religious paintings, mostly devoted to Christmas.

The theme of the Suckling Madonna devoted to Christmas time domains the philatelic realm all over the Christian World and Christianized colonies. With the exception of some African countries on early 70s, we should wait until the 80s for the GOBI campaign created to support the Infant Survival Initiative of WHO-UNICEF, to see a lot of stamps devoted to Breastfeeding as a part of the four goals of such campaign, which is known by its initial letters: Growth Monitoring, Oral Rehydration, Breastfeeding, Immunization.

This campaign was designed between 1979 and 1982, launched on 1983, and lately amplified to GOBI - FFF: GOBI + Family Planning, Food Production, Female Education.

. Many countries issued stamps devoted to the whole program (4 GOBI or 3 FFF stamps) or part of it between 1985 and 1989.