Well, I just can't resist making a few comments about this article
concerning Wal-Mart and breastfeeding.  I've cut and pasted only those parts
I'm responding to.

> Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Jessica Moser said increased customer
> demand was one factor in the company's decision. But she added: "The main
> reason we're offering the products is because we think it's the right
> thing to do. We have worked with many professionals in the field and have
> become very aware that this is a healthy choice for women and babies."

Duh.



> Resheda Hagen, founder of Lansinoh Laboratories Inc. in Oak Ridge, Tenn.,
> and developer of a lanolin-based skin cream that makes breast-feeding less
> painful, sees Wal-Mart's decision to sell her collection as a major
> marketing breakthrough.

Anyone besides me find that wording - "... makes breast-feeding [sic] less
painful..." disturbing?  I am sure that is the reporter's bias, not
Resheda's words.


> Now the number is at its highest ever: The 1998 Ross survey showed that
> 64.3 percent of mothers were initially nursing.

Wonder how close the Wal-Mart breastfeeding section is to the Parent's
Choice formula display?



> ....Wal-Mart's decision offers an opportunity not only to
> reach an audience that might not be as likely to continue to nurse but
> also to provide products that might ease the experience. She said William
> Sears, a California pediatrician sometimes called the new Dr. Spock, plans
> to dedicate a new book to the Wal-Mart collection.

There's that nice phraseology again - "products that might ease the
experience."  Oh, the torture! the pain! the agony!  Geez, I feel like
slapping this reporter; she writes of breastfeeding as if it were some
terrible trial to grit your teeth and get through.


> However, lactation consultants in the Columbia Hospital for Women's
> breast-feeding center and nursing mothers interviewed there were not
> totally enthusiastic about Wal-Mart's plan.
>
> While consultant Julie Edgerton said the move would broaden exposure for
> nursing, she warned that offering equipment without personalized advice on
> how to use it or how items should be fitted "could be dangerous." Citing
> the high drop-off rate after two weeks, Edgerton said, "The mothers just
> don't hang in there because they don't get the backup help they need."

I wish this concern had been presented differently.  I really hate it when I
see health care providers - in any field - state that proceeding without the
supervision of a HCP "could be dangerous."  It makes us look like we are
protecting our turf, in this case, jealously guarding our secret store of
breastfeeding information.  I daresay that most mothers aren't having
problems with breastfeeding that require the services of an LC.  Most of
them are having problems that require the boost in confidence that a display
of books, for example, could perhaps help. (or like Mary Kay said, maybe
it'll occur to them to attend an LLL meeting!)  Maybe just seeing the
display in a Wal-Mart will be an attitude adjustment for someone who thought
she couldn't leave the house with her breastfed baby.

<sigh>  Why is it that breastfeeding in the news is always a good news - bad
news scenario?

Mary Riley Renard, RN, BSN, IBCLC, LLLL
Vienna Virginia  USA

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