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Sun, 5 Sep 2004 09:39:56 EDT |
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I just learned that a girl who babysat for my kids (she is now 19) is going
into the OR for a C-section because of failure to progress in labor (she is 7
cm)...actually failure for the hospital to try any natural alternatives. I
am thousands of miles away and FUMING. So I decided to read
LACTNET...shocking and try to put my energy to good use. No, I am not going to clean my
house. :) I wrote the following letter to the 'No Free Lunch' website.
Christie Pillado
El Paso, TX
Really tired of requirements for how mothers and babies "should" labor and
breastfeed together.
Letter to No Free Lunch website:
As a lactation counselor I would love to see the so-called "gift bags" of
formula handed to every new mother as she leaves the hospital included as
contraban on your website along with the pens and other paraphernalia from drug
companies. The breastfeeding friendly bag has powdered formula instead of
bottled ready-to-drink formula...how that makes it breastfeeding friendly I will
never know.
We are writing into our clinic and hospital unit policies that NO formula
reps are allowed in the clinics or on the wards. We cannot get support to kick
them out altogether because the staff and administrators claim we HAVE to
have the free formula.
If all 70% of American women who say that they are going to breastfeed prior
to the baby's birth were given the right support and encouragement and
actually DID breastfeed for six months exclusively and continued through the first
or second year of life (see the Surgeon General's goals for breastfeeding)
how much formula would one really have to have? AND consider that the US
government is the largest purchaser of formula in the United States through the
WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program and those participants have much
LOWER breastfeeding rates than the rest of the population. Some WIC programs
have done an amazing job in turning this statistic around but most women are
told to take the FREE formula "just in case." In case what? We evolved as a
species on breastmilk and suddenly we need something artificial?
Then consider that an infinitely better alternative is donor breastmilk from
one of the six milk banks in the United States. Mother's who donate are
screened just like blood donors and not a single illness or injury has been
linked to donor breastmilk. In fact, just the opposite. Donor milk keeps many
babies and people alive who might not otherwise have a chance.
Given all the time and money that the US government spends to ensure that
our population is saturated with artificial breastmilk and the enormous
healthcare expenses that are directly linked to NOT breastfeeding, wouldn't one
think that we, the taxpayer, would start to get a little hot under the collar and
say NO FORMULA SAMPLES to our new mothers? Well, the answer is yes. The
World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing Breastmilk
Substitutes states that artificial breastmilk companies will not market their
products to new mothers, give free samples, have a presence in hospitals or birth
centers etc. For more information on this topic please see the INFACT website.
_www.infactcanada.ca_ (http://www.infactcanada.ca/) Every major formula
manufacturer signed "The Code". Lucky for them there isn't any legislation in
the US to give it teeth so they continue this marketing practices and the
United States continues to have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the
developed world and one of the highest infant mortality rates.
This is a relevant and timely topic and should be included on your website
if only because formula fed babies spend more time at the doctor's office, more
time hospitalized and need more prescription drugs to combat what mother
nature could have done unassisted by a questionably marketed substance;
prescription or not.
Sincerely,
An advocate for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and supporter of the
Nestlé boycott who is actually a mainstream kind of middle-class American tired
of watching mothers and babies trampled by the medicalization of motherhood.
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