Hospitals who aim for Baby Friendly would not be able to give out
gifts with formula promotion in them. Maybe that would be a way
forward for US lactation professionals who despair when they see
these distributed to mothers.
Things can and do change.
We have not had 'gifts' of formula in the UK for well over 20 years,
to formula feeders or breastfeeders. Instead, we have a system
whereby probably the majority of maternity units have an arrangement
with one of 2 companies who produce a bag of gifts for every new
mother who gives birth in their unit.
The contents of the bags may contain stuff like vouchers for weaning
foods, but they don't have to. For example, locally, the company (its
name is Bounty) was told not to put these vouchers in, and they
stopped (rather than lose the contract).
The Bounty bag contains a book on babycare (where the info on
breastfeeding is reasonable - it used to be terrible). There is a
Baby Friendly version of the book which is given to hospitals who are
either Baby friendly or who are officially or unofficially working
towards Baby Friendly (now the majority in the UK) . There are things
like baby toiletries, money off coupons for nappies, toothpaste,
health promo leaflets, voucher for a free photographic session...
that sort of thing....and I suppose it amounts to about £10 in value
(about 7 US dollars). It's a promotion, of course, but it doesn't
undermine breastfeeding. It used to - there were ads in the babycare
book for formula, for example, and a generation ago there were little
cans of milk powder...can't say when, but I would guess maybe 25-30
years ago.
I don't think midwives give the bag out any more - a rep comes round
in some places at least.
Seems to me an enterprising person could mimic this anywhere in the
world, getting the support of local businesses to make it a truly
local gift.
I wonder if some of the problem in the US is that the formula
discharge packs are tied up commerically with deals to supply the
maternity unit with cheap formula as well....'we sell you cheap
formula *and* we pay you to hand out our advertising and samples'.
We have a lot of issues in the UK about the way bf is supported in
materity units, even in Baby Friendly ones, and getting rid of free
samples does not remove these issues *by any means*.....but it's an
important, symbolic step, I think.
Good luck to all of you who are facing this!
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
