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Date: | Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:31:54 +1100 |
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What started this was the Medela US brochure for their 'complete feeding
system' which does have a bottle and teat on the front cover - as I
mentioned earlier - it seems to have disappeared from the website! From my
research talking to people from around the world, this does seem to be a US
issue primarily. Other regions seem to respond to concerns from their own
HPs. I think that Medela is trying to do the right thing by always
mentioning breastfeeding and breastmilk in all descriptions of their
products. However, Karleen is correct in that the Code is a minimum
standard. As IBCLCs we have a responsibility to ensure that breastfeeding is
seen as the norm - NOT breast milk feeding. The infant feeding market is
being saturated by products that are in direct competition to the norm -
breastfeeding. It is in no companies interests for all babies to be
breastfed - doesn't make them any money. With the recognition of the
importance for babies and young children to be breastfed increasing across
the world and the profits for companies decreasing, new strategies needed to
be developed. You can be sure that significant amounts of money have been
spent by marketing gurus to ensure that how products are being marketed to
the consumer will yield the strongest response at the cash register. By
including the words breastmilk and breastfeed in their advertsing spin, it
helps to legitimise their product. This is done by artificial formula
companies when they talk about 'breast is best' but....., just the same as
bottle and teat comapnies saying our teat is 'just like the breast' or
'close to nature' and 'easy to swap between breast and bottle'!
In countries where there is very high use of breastpumps/ bottles/ teats you
will also see companies with very strong marketing and unfortunately there
has also been strong support from HPs for these companies for a whole lot of
reasons. I believe this started from a desire by all of us, to respond to
the perceived needs of women ie. who return to work or who have sick or prem
babies etc and this is a legitimate response, don't get me wrong. What has
happened though is an escalation to the point now that far too many women
believe this is the way to feed! Instead of us standing together to lobby
governments to 'fix' the situation for women we have applied a bandaid
approach which was never going to work in the long term.
So now we have comapnies that are constantly searching for ways to make a
profit setting the norm - is this really what we want?
Jenni James
Melbourne, Australia
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