The great satire by Tess Parriott, comparing formula gift bags to marketing
cigarettes to heart patients, has been making the rounds here.

I just finished writing the quarterly newsletter that we send to nurses and
doctors from South Jersey WIC, the Southern NJ Perinatal Cooperative,
and Kennedy Health System.  My topic for this issue was breastfeeding and
smoking---and let me tell you, Tess's satire strikes many notes that ring
very true.
Research with pregnant and lactating smokers/ex-smokers has indeed found
that "Not smoking is hard and not everyone can or wants to do it."

Where is the line between a physical addiction, a socially-supported habit,
and an irreversible decision made on the basis of fear or ignorance?
Smoking is certainly an addiction.  The decision to reject breastfeeding,
to squander the baby's milk that Nature has provided, and to use
processed breastmilk substitutes, is--in most cases that I see--a choice
made on the basis of fear or ignorance.  But both are socially-supported
habits--supported by one's peers, by the Almighty Market, and by a
"people's" government that can so easily be corrupted by business interests.

Women got angry when they saw how cigarette marketing was being
targeted directly at them (for instance, "You've come a long way, Baby" and
the ads that were blatantly pitched to women of color).  Where is the anger
at formula companies that are robbing us of our babies' milk, the gift that
each
one of us receives when she brings a baby into the world?

I'm nomail at the moment, so if you have a comment, please send it directly.

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
eastern USA

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