As an LC who took a stand and told the Evenflo CEO that I was "out the 
door" if his company didn't embrace the WHO Code, it is disheartening to 
hear my colleagues rationalize the "good" that could come from 
normalizing bottle-feeding through marketing bottle/nipple (teats) to 
parents.

The purpose of this part of the Code to ensure that businesses present 
breastfeeding (not "human milk feeding") as the norm.  Is that currently 
the case in the US?  Far from it. That's why I consider it important 
enough to risk my job (and yes, my family's health insurance) to help 
bring this about. 

I agreed to work for Ameda in part because it has always been WHO Code 
compliant.  My conscience would not allow me to take a paycheck from a 
non-WHO Code compliant company.  In fact, in the beginning I thought 
that for ethics sake I might need to help Evenflo become WHO Code 
compliant as a volunteer, rather than accept a paycheck.  But when I 
asked Marsha Walker about this, she assured me that this was not 
necessary.  After all, she told me, if we can't accept a paycheck to 
help bring a company into Code compliance, it will be far less likely to 
happen.  Our hope is to start a trend.  We want to raise the bar for 
other companies by raising the profile of the Code here in the US, where 
most businesses are completely unaware of it.

I am excited to be part of a potentially culture-changing event.  But 
please, let's not undermine the importance of this critical part of our 
profession's Code of Ethics. To reinterate Karleen's comment, abiding by 
the WHO Code is NOT about the availability of bottles/nipples (teats) or 
their appropriate use.  It is only about marketing them to parents.  If 
you are "100% for the Code's objectives," please do your best to get 
100% behind the idea that no matter what is in the bottle, marketing 
bottles and nipples to parents undermines breastfeeding.  We want to 
change our US culture from bottle-feeding as the norm to breastfeeding 
is the norm. And this is one important piece.

Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC
Lactation Consultant, Ameda Breastfeeding Products
Chicago suburbs, Illinois

>
>Kay writes: 
>
>Bottlefeeding is a very real and important part of getting babies to be breastmilk-fed beyond a month in the US.  Our society is not very child-friendly, and we have virtually no paid time off for new families; these moms HAVE to go back to work (yes, I discuss all the ways to lower expenses and stay home, but its just not reality for most US families today).  We also do not typically have extended families nearby, so these babies are usually going to daycare, so continuing to receive mom's milk is even more important Yes, Medela could have left the packaged "feeding system" product out, and let the formula-associated companies make that money, but personally I would rather have that product help fund the work of folks like Australia's own Dr. Hartmann than have it go elsewhere.  Are there issues here?, yes.  But I also recognize that the WHO code was structured to help all babies all over the world, especially the 1-2 million who die from lack of breastmilk each year.  Whereas in much of the world, the use of bottles and teats means the end of breastfeeding, in the US today they are indispensable to helping it continue.  Do we have to provide good education and support for their APPROPRIATE use? absolutely!
>
>Even in the US, the numbers of working moms was far lower when the Code was developed, and although I am 100% in support of it's objectives, the reasoning part of my brain tells me that Medela's motive with this product is to support the working breastfeeding mom, (and remain in business through profitability, of course), not to promote artificial feeding.  I DO wish they would improve the "system", all the way back to the pumps, to include and allow for the use of wider/breast-shaped/better-for-breastfeeding-babies nipples (perhaps just a collar adapter?).
>
>
>  
>

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