Portland, Oregon – To kick off Oregon’s Breastfeeding Promotion Month, Dr. Susan Allan, Public Health Director for Oregon Department of Human Services, presented “Maternity Care Best Practices” awards to 15 area hospitals which have eliminated formula sample packs from the discharge bags customarily given to mothers as they head home with their new babies. Portland is the first city in the nation to have both public and private hospitals ban the formula sample packs since the launch of the national “Ban the Bag” campaign one year ago.

Award recipients include: Adventist Medical Center, Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center, Legacy Health System, Providence Health System, Oregon Health and Science University and Doernbecher Neonatal Care Center. Other hospitals throughout Oregon have also banned the bag and four have attained the World Health Organization status of “Baby Friendly”.

Debate is raging in the New York Times blog and spin-off press about a similar recent announcement that New York City public hospitals have banned the formula sample packs. Many reports inaccurately state that the hospitals have banned formula. Actually, the policy makes formula available to moms who request it; it just stops the practice of giving free formula samples to mothers as they leave the hospital. Some NYT bloggers feel the formula is a free gift that low income mothers need; others recognize it as a marketing ploy by the pharmaceutical companies which sell infant formula.

Free formula sample packs lower breastfeeding rates and increase brand loyalty. As Dr. Allan stated at the award ceremony, “New research has shown that the distribution of formula sample packs has a detrimental effect on breastfeeding. The presence of a can of formula in the early days undermines a mother’s confidence that she can successfully breastfeed.” The hospital’s role in this is also clear: “Free formula given by the hospital where you deliver gives a subtle message that the formula must be OK,” says Carol Tracy, Director of Maternal Child and Women’s Health at Kaiser Sunnyside. “Kaiser Sunnyside stopped that practice when we became ‘Baby Friendly’ in 1999.”

“The bags are not free,” says Amelia Psmythe, Executive Director of the Nursing Mothers Counsel of Oregon, “we are all paying for them through the decrease in breastfeeding rates and associated increase in health problems. Mothers who want the free formula can request it from the formula companies, but hospitals should market health and nothing else.”

“Legacy Health System recognizes that mother’s milk is the best start we can give a baby. In our effort to encourage, support and celebrate the use of mother’s milk, we have discontinued the practice of providing mothers with free formula or discounted formula coupons when they deliver their baby at our hospitals,” says Cindy Hill, Director of Children’s Services for Legacy.

The award ceremony was part of a benefit luncheon for Nursing Mothers Counsel of Oregon; hosted by Legacy Children’s Hospital, and served as a kick-off for World Breastfeeding Week, which by Governor’s Proclamation is celebrated in Oregon as Breastfeeding Promotion Month.

The international theme for World Breastfeeding Week 2007 is “Breastfeeding the First Hour: Save One Million Lives”. The US theme is “Welcome Baby Softly”. Both themes underscore the importance of early initiation of breastfeeding through birth center practices which support mother-baby skin to skin contact and rooming-in. The luncheon highlighted leading-edge steps local hospitals, legislators and champions have taken to welcome baby softly into the larger community.

Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley was the keynote presenter at the luncheon, where he made his first public announcement of his candidacy for US Senate. He also made his first campaign promise: If elected, Merkley will sponsor workplace accommodation legislation on the federal level, similar to what he just helped pass in Oregon. The Breastfeeding and Return to Work law goes into effect January 1, 2008.

Press contacts: amelia@nursingmotherscounsel.org