I'm
for breastfeeding, but I'm also for choice, if a mother is not
comforatble with having a baby latched on their breast for hours in a
day then it would be benifitial for both the mother and the child that
the mother not breast feed, there are studies that prove that a mother
that has bad feeling of not having the "freedom" that formula feeder
have is passing on a negative aura to her child and the breastfeeding
experience is ruined for both the mother and the child. Also, about the
bags at the hospital, I recieved two. One from my midwife, that
supports breastfeeding, and one at the hospital. I will add that I
chose to breastfeed when I found out I was pregnant. The bags with the
formula did not influence me AT ALL. In fact I was so happy I didn't
have to go out and buy a diaper bag, because I had two! I gave the
formula to a friend that had her baby 2 weeks before me, she had to
return to work after 2 weeks and breastfeeding wasn't something she
wanted to do, or even try. Selfish I think, but it's her choice. I'm
now going on three months of breastfeeding, working and pumping. I love
it and wouldn't change it. By the end of my pregnancy I had recieved
5-6 cans of formula through the mail and from the bags. Not once did I
desire to mix a bottle and give it to my baby.
By Leah
Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi
By Valintino
Good
point, Lucy. Hospitals have no responsibility to provide their patients
with unhealthy food. When I was in the hospital after having my son, I
received balananced meals, not Cheetos and Mountain Dew. Women do have
the right to decide what to feed their children, but hospitals should
not help them make poor decisions.
I'd also like to point out that The AAP Breastfeeding Policy
(http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496)
states that "[o]bstacles to initiation and continuation of
breastfeeding include [...] commercial promotion of infant formula
through distribution of hospital discharge packs, coupons for free or
discounted formula, and some television and general magazine
advertising143,144."
By Allison
I
would like to know why people think that withholding the free formula
sample is not allowing a mother to choose how she will feed. The two
have nothing to do with each other! At our hospital, we do give a
bottle feeing mother detailed instructions on how to bottle feed.
I've been an OB nurse for over 22 years and I can't count the times
I've seen nursing moms go home with the free formula and it be
completely responsible for sabotaging breastfeeding! It even happened
to me with my first son before I got educated about breastfeeding from
the Le Leche League! I say Banning the BAGS will be the first step
toward healthy babies in the US. I am really surprised that we have not
had law suits from women that later became educated about our policies
that didn't support their desire to breastfeed.
Through the years of working in the hospital, not one OB nurse ever
breastfed! Why? Because they got the free formula, they didn't believe
it interfered with breastfeeding. Why was I successful at nursing my
second child? I contacted a friend that breastfed successfully. She
informed me of the importance of NOT giving formula. She directed me to
the LLLI where the info I received contraindicated everything I had
done before. After I successfully breastfed my second son for years,
the other nurses contacted me for help when they had their babies. Some
would still give the formula.....end result? They weaned very early!
All the ones that didn't use the formula nursed successfully! Now for
the first time, many of our OB nurses have breastfeeding experience.
Why can't we get this through the thick skulls of the people supporting
the pharmaceutical companies marketing strategies? I am not surprised
to see this site and the two main bloggers as sponsored by The
International Formula Council. So unethical!!
This is by far not the site to get unbiased info to make an informed
decision about infant feeding. It is another marketing strategy for the
formula companies. The almighty dollar....at the expense of mothers'
and babies' health!!
By Marcia
Dear
Kate, I am assuming you are the formula company "front-man" for this
pathetic web site. I can't believe you are a University lecturer in
Journalism. I guess I am naive, thinking most jounalists were better
educated and 'free-thinkers'. By the way, ethically, should the two
people being paid by the formula company to 'host'this web-site really
be posting blogs, as if they are interested moms? This is such a phony
bunch of diaper-filler!
By Jamelle
Hospitals
give this crap out because they have contracts with the formula
companies. The special formulas used to feed babies in the NICU is very
expensive. Most insurances pay a flat fee for baby's hosptial stay, the
baby that is being fed formula is costing the hospital more, but the
hospital is not being reimbursed more. So....the formula companies have
special contracts where they give the hospitals free formula in
exchange for the hospital giving out the bags to breastfeeding women
upon discharge. I know this FIRST HAND because I work in a hospital in
PA that does this. It's a big game ladies! The formula company isn't
trying to be nice....they making an effort every day to sabatage
breastfeeding. It's sick!
By M
True,
most moms make the choice about feeding before they go to the hospital.
And most of those moms are misinformed, or uninformed, because their
doctors are too afraid of insulting them to give them the correct
information about the benefits of breastfeeding and the risks of using
formula. So instead of giving these moms free formula, shoving these
products down the babies' throats, how about making sure that every
woman in America is given the right information, so that she can make
the best choice for her BABY, and not for her own convenience or for
the benefit of the formula companies' bank accounts? The sad fact is
that women in this country are NOT given all the information they need
to make the best decision -- the information they receive is skewed
toward formula-feeding. Anyone who doesn't believe that needs to open
their eyes.
By Amy
Erin,Thank you for the good points
By Faye
Obviously,
based on the comments here so far, women *do* see the free formula bags
as a problem. I don't see any comments defending them on a site that is
in favor of keeping them in the hospitals. People can be informed on
feeding choices the same way they are informed on other things: they
can ask their doctors, do their own research, even watch commercials
(not the most informative way!) - but actually giving out the product
to vulnerable women right after they've given birth?
The problem is not that the samples will make women want to
formula-feed - it is that they will have the product available in their
home and may turn to it sooner than if they'd have to have gone out to
the buy it themselves. It is also an endorsement of formula by a place
that claims they encourage breastfeeding... why not give out the
samples to people who actually ask for them themselves, like by writing
to the formula company and requesting them?
By Erin
Obviously,
based on the comments here so far, women *do* see the free formula bags
as a problem. I don't see any comments defending them on a site that is
in favor of keeping them in the hospitals. People can be informed on
feeding choices the same way they are informed on other things: they
can ask their doctors, do their own research, even watch commercials
(not the most informative way!) - but actually giving out the product
to vulnerable women right after they've given birth?
The problem is not that the samples will make women want to
formula-feed - it is that they will have the product available in their
home and may turn to it sooner than if they'd have to have gone out to
the buy it themselves. It is also an endorsement of formula by a place
that claims they encourage breastfeeding... why not give out the
samples to people who actually ask for them themselves, like by writing
to the formula company and requesting them?
By Erin
The
research shows that women who intend to breastfeed, but are given the
bags, have shorter breastfeeding relationships and are less likely to
breastfeed for the recommended lengths of time (exclusively for six
months, additionally for a MINIMUM of 12 or 24 months, depending on the
health authority cited).
Companies are not handing these bags out from the goodness of their
hearts. They know that if a mother decides to 'supplement' or wean
completely to formula, the formula they 'gifted' to that woman at the
hospital is likely to be the brand she chooses, at the very least. And,
they also know how easily "just one bottle" can start the slippery
slope towards 100% formula feeding, despite a mother's best intentions.
It is entirely irresponsible for Health Care Providers to endorse
formula-feeding by providing the free bags to mothers. And it is beyond
irresponsible for formula companies to continue to do so, despite the
ban on such marketing which they claim to follow.
By TK
Health
care professional are not suppose to promote inferior products. Isn't
that what is going on here? HCP have Codes of Ethics which include
supporting "Informed Choice." Before handing out a bag of formula
samples is that HCP asking the right questions:
"Does your family have a family history of dairy allergies, soy nut
allergies, or chronic illnesses such as diabetes, or Chrohn's disease?"
"Do you knows how to safely prepare powder formulas since they are not
sterile?"
There are several other risk factors that need to be addressed.
What really confuses me is why JACHO turns the other way about handing
out formula samples when other drug samples can not be handed out to
hospital patients.
By Faye
Seriously?
It is still an issue. Hardly a month goes by where a nursing mother has
not been publicly humilated by being harassed or other wise
discriminating against for nursing in public. Countless mothers begin
formula feeding because they get conflicting information from health
care providers. Health care providers should only be encouraging what
is best, not what is inferior. When bags of formula are handed out at
hospitals, mothers recieve the message that if the hospital provides
it, it must be okay. I'd be willing to bet that if we were able to ban
the bags in all 50 states and prevent formula companies from fishing,
breastfeeding rates would sky rocket. If formula is so good, why do
they need to give it away for free?
By Heather
I
totally agree that women have the right to equal support and
information about feeding choices. That is what would be accomplished
by banning the gift bags. Currently, women are being told that breast
is best, but here is a wonderful bag of goodies for when breastfeeding
doesn't work. They are not given the appropriate support to continue
breastfeeding, they are rarely given accurate information about
breastfeeding. In the words of Dr. Jack Newman, it is a cruel joke that
we are playing on women. Telling them one thing (breastfeed) and giving
them support for something 4th best (artificial baby milk).
When every maternity ward has qualified IBCLC lactation consultants on
staff, when insurance companies pay for follow up lactation care, when
every pediatrician and OB/GYN knows where to refer nursing moms to for
help, when maternity leaves are long enough to establish a solid milk
supply, when work places offer women a place and the time to pump, THEN
and only THEN will moms be able to make an unbiased choice about what
to feed their babies. Unfortunately for formula company profits, with
all of the proper support in place, most women would choose to
breastfeed.
By Jennifer
Name
one other hospital ward where the nurses promote a product and send you
home with a gift bag. You don't go in for lung cancer treatment and
walk out with a carton of cigarettes. You don't go in for obesity
surgery and walk out with a box of donuts. If breastfeeding is best,
why should a mother leave the hospital with baby junk food?
By Lucy
