banthebags.orgMarsha Walker exposes formula company tactics in her article, Formula Company Discharge Bags: The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing:
Sampling gets the product into the hands of the consumer, provides for its easy use at the first sign of breastfeeding roadblocks, and starts the process of early weaning – the perfect setup for creating a market where none existed before.
In 2007, Portland, Oregon became the first “Bag Free” city in the US, when all 15 maternity hospitals stopped marketing formula to new mothers. The Oregon Community Health Partnership, the Nursing Mothers’ Counsel of Oregon and the Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon joined forces to present awards to “Bag Free” hospitals and draw attention to the negative consequences of formula marketing. They summarized their success in an award-winning poster for the Oregon Public Health Association.
Hospitals provide formula sample packs while medical organizations encourage breastfeeding
CHICAGO—A majority of U.S. hospitals on the East coast distribute formula sample packs to new mothers, contrary to recommendations from most major medical organizations concerned about the potential for distributing these packs to reduce breastfeeding rates, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, the practice is changing significantly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released results from a national survey of US maternity centers showing that 70 percent of birth facilities continue to market formula to new mothers, undermining health recommendations. In an editorial note accompanying the study, published in the journal “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,” the authors comment:
Facilities should consider discontinuing these practices to provide more positive influences on breastfeeding initiation and duration.
For more information on mPINC, read the press release from the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.
A recent article in The New York Times reported on rising US breastfeeding rates. In the article, Bobby Philipp, a pediatrician at Boston University, pointed to formula bags as a key obstacle to breastfeeding success. Noting that most hospitals still market formula to new mothers, she said:
That’s a problem because at least five studies have shown that when a doctor or nurse hands the family that bag, even if they take the formula out, that mother will have less success with breast-feeding
The March/April issue of Mothering Magazine features the Ban the Bags campaign. Part of the magazine’s “Speak truth to power” issue, Marsha Walker’s account of the struggle to move formula marketing out of hospitals is available online to digital subscribers, and on news stands everywhere.
Mothers who take home a formula company gift bag are more likely to stop exclusively breastfeeding their babies by 10 weeks of age, according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health by the Oregon Department of Public Health. Oregon has taken the lead in banning hospital marketing of branded formula, according to a report on the study in The Oregonian.
The Center for Media and Democracy awarded the Bronze Medal “Falsie” award to the IFC for egregious distortion of information on the health risks of formula feeding. The Falsies honor the year’s most “cynical, manipulative and just plain anti-democratic pollution of our information environment.”
The Center writes:
For portraying accurate health information as alarmism and intrusive marketing campaigns as “freedom” — not to mention helping to keep U.S. breastfeeding rates well below those of European countries — this Falsie’s for you, IFC!
Just how far will the formula industry go to undermine moms and babies? The Center for Media and Democracy has nominated the Infant Formula Council for the 2007 “Falsie” award, which honors the year’s most egregious spinners and propaganda artists. In their nomination, the Falsies pinpoint “Mom’s Feeding Freedom,” the industry’s fake grass roots site, as well as the industry’s successful effort to undermine the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ campaign for breastfeeding.
Cast your vote to make the IFC the biggest “Falsie” of 2007:
http://survey.prwatch.org/public/survey.php?name=falsies2007
In the September issue of Mothering Magazine, editor Peggy O’Mara details infant formula industry efforts to undermine breastfeeding:
In addition to the inaccurate information on breastfeeding provided by the mainstream media, the unethical marketing practices of the formula companies continue to undermine breastfeeding. Author Margaret Kenda recently told me about several “stealth” breastfeeding websites that appear to be grassroots advocacy sites, but are actually mouthpieces for the formula industry.
You are currently browsing the banthebags.org weblog archives for the 'News' category.
