>From: Pamela Mazzella Di Bosco <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Lactation Information and Discussion
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: ILCA Conference Exhibits(long)
>Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 01:07:29 EDT
>
>This was my first conference....As I walked by Avent and Playtex I shook my
>head knowing that this would be a Lactnet discussion to be sure.
>Personally,
>I took their cups...lots and lots of their cups, not enough to make them
>bankrupt..but enough. Wanted to be sure their exhibit cost them as much as
>possible. Taking these things will not encourage me to encourage moms to
>use
>them. Maybe the difference is just that. I see the exhibits at a
>conference
>as sort of show and tell...I don't think it means we have to become their
>salesperson. Maybe because I believe in free trade and capitalism,
>marketing
>really does not bother me. I have no problem with products being marketed
>to
>professionals. Now, if this conference were for parents as well as
>professionals and the products were being sold...humm, that may make me
>less
>happy about it. I cringe when I see bottles used as representative of
>babyhood for health fairs for that reason....but this was not a health
>fair.
>I do understand the concern about bedfellows but have to trust that the
>line
>might have been walked on, but not crossed over. I will give it more
>thought
>and might decide that the line was crossed afterall.
>
>As for Peter Hartman....Research is not free. Somehow someway we need to
>come to grips with the reality that research cost money and someone needs
>to
>pay for it. I would much rather that be a company trying to make a product
>that helps babies get their mother's milk than a company trying to be sure
>it
>never happens. The comparison of pump companies to formula manufactures is
>really unfair. The belief that no one should be making money via
>mother/baby
>feeding practices is not only unrealistic, it is hypocritical if you are
>receiving payment for your services as an LC. My goodness, we could carry
>that to so many extremes in the medical world. Why should it cost money
>for
>by-pass or transplant surgeries? Why can't it all be free? Well, it would
>be nice if the world somehow operated without money and we all ate and had
>medical care and housing at no expense too. But, that is not the reality
>of
>life especially in the USA. If there is going to be research done in the
>field of lactation I would prefer it to be done by companies trying to make
>breastfeeding possible and not by companies trying to isolate what they can
>patent next to reproduce!! and sell to make breastfeeding less likely if
>not
>impossible. That said, I am going to repeat what I was told by Peter's
>research team members and by Medela .... The funding of the research was
>to
>understand how the breast functions in terms of production and milk
>ejection.
> That knowledge would be used to create technology that could duplicate it
>as
>close as possible. We also get a chance to add to our knowledge of how the
>breast functions and add a piece to the science puzzle of human lactation.
>We may never need to use a Medela product, but we will still have the
>information.
> What about Paula Meier? Her work has changed NICU care and breastfeeding
>for premies...she too is part of the research. What do you want exactly?
>How do you want technology to advance? How do you want this science
>learned
>about and researched? This is not just about the art of breastfeeding,
>this
>is about the science of the human breast and mammalian function and this is
>not going to be understood without research...and again, research cost
>money.
> Lots of money.
>
>What I find acceptable at a professional conference and what I find
>acceptable to the public at large in terms of marketing are quite
>different.
>I prefer to trust the professional to make decisions based on more than
>marketing ploys and to be able to know the difference between advertising
>and
>fact. When you have access to all the information, when you can see, touch,
>try all that is available, you have an opportunity to learn about it, make
>choices and decisions for yourself based on information. I consider
>myself
>an adult capable of making decisions (not always good ones, but at least my
>own) and don't need to be protected from the "world of marketing". The
>difference as I see it between formula companies and their cozy
>relationship
>with the medical world and ILCA getting cozy with pump companies (any and
>all
>of them...not one in particular) is if we get too cozy or the marketing
>gets
>too intense mothers and babies around the world will get to breastfeed!
>
>Not true with formula reps and docs. I know there are those who don't
>believe in any marketing of any products and like to blame the product and
>the marketing instead of the professional for choosing to push it, but I
>don't see it that way. The fact that doctors have allowed the formula
>companies (and pharmaceuticals in general) to sway their care for their
>patients is not the fault of free enterprise and marketing, it is the fault
>of the doctors for forgetting first do no harm. I do not hold formula
>companies responsible for wanting to get rich, I hold the medical world
>responsible for making it so easy. However, this is not the same attitude
>I
>have about marketing to the public.
>And I believe the Code was meant to prevent companies from profiting ...not
>from the choice to breastfeed or not... but from being a reason the choice
>is
>'not'. And to be sure mothers had the ability to choose with all the
>information they needed without practices that made breastfeeding difficult
>even when that was their choice.
>
>I don't think we can say no one should profit from the choice to breastfeed
>or not unless we don't want to be a paid profession. In reality, LC's
>profit
>from a mother's choice to breastfeed. If mothers chose to turn to formula
>every time there was a problem, then LC's would not be needed. But, we
>have
>created a profession that wants to help mothers choose to keep
>breastfeeding
>by helping them succeed at it. Isn't that "profit" due to "choice"? Does
>not our very existence as a source of help influence the decision to stop
>or
>continue? Perhaps the slippery slope is not so slippery at all in the
>"paid
>world". Perhaps we just need to keep our guard up and be sure that we see
>the difference between helping to make breastfeeding work and helping to
>make
>it not work.
>
>Best,
>Pam MazzellaDiBosco, IBCLC FL, USA
>
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Well said!
LuAnn
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