Well, it's not just Obamacare, because it is booming here too.

At the moment I am more offended than usual at Medela, because they
have a sales rep here in Norway who is very, um, 'energetic'.  She
does not respect rules about contact between hospital staff and sales
reps (we have rules that protect us from having to deal with them).
She passes herself off as a kind of colleague/ally in the Good Fight
for mothers and babies, while presenting extremely biased information
about the Symphony pump when she gains access to staff at what many of
them perceive as educational sessions on work time. Because it is
fairly new here for nursing and midwifery staff to be targeted by
salespeople, there is a knowledge gap on the ground level in most
hospitals about what the rules are, and many suppliers of medical
equipment exploit this, I am told. I have only seen Medela in action
on my patch.

She tells each hospital that all the other hospitals are very pleased
with the Symphony, and in our case, she told the hospital pharmacy
that they had to start stocking the Harmony pump (sold with a Calma
bottle, excuse me, I mean 'breastmilk delivery system', included in
the package) because the maternity ward was adopting the Symphony pump
and recommended the Harmony to mothers. All this was something she
made up on the spot.  We tried out the Symphony for a couple of weeks,
and returned it.  We have never even SEEN the Harmony, and certainly
have not recommended it, or any other particular personal pump, for
mothers.

Avent have had the largest market share for years, and they certainly
have their own sleazy marketing strategies, but nothing tops this
latest surge from Medela. Avent have never tried to gain access to me
on my work time, I'll give them that much.

For the record, our fleet of Sister Maja Breastpumps are still going
strong, after nearly six decades of impeccable service. And the
mothers we care for who start hand expression on day one if baby is
uninterested or unable to latch, are expressing *buckets* by day three
or four when they meet Sister Maja.

Pumps are not evil, and I know as well as anyone how useful they can
be when babies are unable to feed at the breast, be it due to medical
conditions in the baby or work conditions for the mother.  Marketing
of pumps is often insidious and rarely a sober presentation of the
facts. I would love it if the same ground rules as the ones in the WHO
Code for breastmilk substitutes, could be applied with the force of
law behind them to limit the offenses now being committed.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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