Prof. Wong Hock Boon, the Professor of Paediatrics in our medical school, studied this disturbing phenomenon in his publication, Breastfeeding in Singapore (1971). As early as 1972, he initiated a correspondence with the La Leche League in the USA, asking for advice and help to start a support group for breastfeeding mothers here. It was not until 1975 that he was in touch with an expatriate lady here, Mrs Illona D. Helmhotz, who had LLLI background, and gave him active assistance to get a group going. Through the newspapers, they asked for interested women to respond. The respondents were a handful of primarily expatriate women, among them a young New Zealand mother married to a Malaysian, Mrs Rosemary Chen, who became the first President of the Singapore Breastfeeding Mothers' Group (SBMG), set up in 1975 as an Advisory Committee under the Consumers' Association of Singapore (CASE). In those days, Prof. Wong highlighted the plight of babies who were allergic to cow's milk, and bottled-fed babies with severe cases of gastroenteritis, who were put on donated breast milk as part of their treatment. He ran human milk banks in the Singapore General Hospital, St. Andrew's Children's Hospital and Alexandra Hospital with milk donated from members of the group. These case studies were to give publicity to the importance of breastfeeding, as so few local mothers were breastfeeding at all then.

SBMG members gave help to mothers through "coffee mornings" in homes, phone counselling, and the sale of printed pamphlets highlighting seven aspects of breastfeeding. These were later amalgamated and expanded to form the main body of our present handbook, "Practical Hints for Breastfeeding." Even in those early years, SBMG organized breastfeeding seminars, baby shows for the public, and participated in exhibitions to share the breastfeeding message. Members donated books towards a library of breastfeeding material, and since then, the SBMG Library has been one of the authoritative resources, and for many years the only resource, for breastfeeding material. In 1977, SBMG President Junnie Tan represented the Group at the International Planned Parenthood Federation's seminar on "Lactation, fertility and the working woman" in Milan, Italy. She was a midwife by training, and the first local President of the Group. In those early years, Dr. Ang Poon Liat and Dr. Maureen Tsakok were closely involved with the Executive Committee. In 1979, Prof. Wong spear-headed the formation of the Sale of Infant Foods Ethics Committee, Singapore (SIFECS). This body aimed to protect and promote breastfeeding by providing guidelines on the appropriate marketing and distribution of breast milk substitutes for up to one year of age. SBMG was, and now BMSG(S) is still an important voice on this regulatory body.