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Marsha 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.