In light of how little Medela seemed to care about their image amongst
people working seriously with breastfeeding when the issue of advertising
feeding bottles on their website came up last year, I am not very hopeful
that they will change their policy about where pumps may be rented either. 
The bottom line is that if you only supply pumps to people who actually need
them, you won't move enough of them to survive as a producer and developer
of pumps, so you need to foist them off on anyone who will fall for your
schpiel.  If they are stopped from advertising in JHL over this, it might
just make them sit up and take notice.  
Mary, how about a think piece for JHL based on your post?  And, do you or
the other parties renting out pumps have anything in your contract with
Medela that stipulates that they won't do anything to undercut your business?  
You wrote something about the rates they were charging at Babies R Us.  I'm
not familiar with the going rates for pump rental in the US so I don't know
if this was high or low.  Here, it costs about that to rent a Symphony for
four weeks, plus the cost of the single-user collection sets.  
Yes, it stinks that women get bad advice when renting pumps from a retailer
of baby paraphernalia. But if Medela finds it a profitable arrangement they
will probably continue it, because that's why they are in business.  
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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