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.
Category Archives: News
New mothers get mixed messages
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.
CDC report: Most hospitals market formula, undermine breastfeeding
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.
Breastfeeding rates, and Ban the Bags, in The New York Times
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
Mothering Magazine features Ban the Bags
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.
Study Shows Formula Bags Undermine Breastfeeding
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.
Formula Industry Wins Bronze ‘Falsie’ for Slimiest Spin
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!
Formula Industry nominated for “Slimiest Spin” award
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
Mothering Magazine features Ban the Bags
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.
Formula lobbyists undermined public health campaign
Writing for The Washington Post, reporters Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee detail formula industry efforts to eviscerate a Dept of Health and Human Services breastfeeding promotion campaign. The report illustrates the formula industry’s agenda to market its product at the expense of public health. Read the article.
Portland, Oregon first U.S. city to eliminate formula-marketing hospital discharge bags
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. Continue reading
NPR’s ‘Tell me more’ discusses New York City’s bag ban
NPR reported on New York City’s new policy in a conversation with Kim Gande, president of NOW, and Faye Wattleton, president of the Center for the Advancemet of Women, and followed up with a round table discussion with the Mocha Moms. Gande and Wattleton emphasized broader cultural obstacles to breastfeeding, and dismissed Bloomberg’s bag policy as a “band-aid” rather than a solution. Like many commentators, they were unaware of data from dozens of randomized controlled trials showing that commercial discharge packs undermine breastfeeding.
