The Infant Formula Council’s “Moms Feeding Freedom” web site has deleted scores of anti-marketing posts from its blog and discussion forums, censoring animated discussions among mothers about the ethics of aggressive formula marketing tactics.

Posting about the deleted threads, contributor Songbh writes, “So, what does it say when a website that claims to be devoted to protecting mothers’ freedoms and choices starts ‘disappearing’ our free speech?”

The site, launched last month, purports to be a grass roots effort to protect access to information for new mothers.

On July 9, frequent contributors to the site’s online forum noted that several threads had disappeared, including a thread titled, “Let’s find the misinformation,” and a discussion about formula-industry-backed legislation to protect corporate access to hospitals.

On July 10, the site’s administrators also deleted all comments from the blog, leaving behind only carefully crafted posts from site manager Kate Kahn, a corporate communications consultant.

“It’s the ultimate irony that a web site about ‘freedom’ and ‘access to information’ is resorting to censorship,” says Dr. Alison Stuebe, a Boston Ob/Gyn and a member of the board of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.

The deleted Blog comments were retrieved from web archiving services, and are posted here:

• The bottom line and the bottle line
• Mother’s Day Moment
• My Purse and my Pump!
• Diaper Bags
• Gimme a Break!
• Bottle Bonding
• Fat or Fiction?
• BREAST OBSESSION
• C’mon NPR
• The Politics of Breasts
• One Mother’s Story
• Extending Maternity Leaves
• Legal Discrimination?
• Married to the Pump
• Perception versus Reality
• Do I Have to Breastfeed To Be A Good Mom?

The blog itself (with comments deleted) remains on the “Freedom” web site at:
http://www.momsfeedingfreedom.com/index.php/home/blog/