It was brought to my attention a few months ago that Medela is a WHO Code
violator, although the company reps vehemently deny that.  The reps claim
that it is hard to determine because the CODE is ambiguous and up for
interpretation.  As Vice-President of an ILCA affiliate, I strongly
disagreed and helped the Board of Directors of the affiliate see that Medela
was not in a position to police itself.  There are others who oversee CODE
compliance/violations.

Not only is Medela advertising bottles and nipples for bottle feeding, but
it also ADVOCATES bottle feeding of breastmilk.  That promotion is not just
for NICU babies – which of course could be fed breastmilk by other means,
including the breast – but for any feeding of breastmilk.  The more a pump
company advocates bottle feeding, the more pumps will be sold or rented;
that is all they are interested in as that is the company’s bottom line, and
that is their way to expand their profits/business.

The lactation community has to be very careful; it is at a fork in the road
and in a position to take a stance on this issue.  I strongly agree with
what g raphael wrote in response to Rachel Myr:

 

I totally agree... i think the new marketing campaign is a real violation
of/hazard to the mother-baby dyad... does this mean that in 10 years (ever
the optimist) when we've finally managed to convince the masses that formula
is not "just as good" as bm we will have to launch another campaign to
convince them that breastpumping does not equal breastfeeding??  i think
these pump companies are seeing £$£$ signs and are overstepping WHO code..
they have the power to change cultural attitudes.... or more to the point,
perpetuate the bottle-feeding culture.. albiet an ebm one.... what to do???

 

Lee again:  What to do?  Stand up to the pump companies just as we stand up
to the Artificial Baby Milk companies.  If we come on strong now, rather
than wait until things get really bad in the future, we stand a better
chance of heading them off.  This is not easy because, once again, we are
fighting corporations with a ton of money (their profits from pumps that are
keeping babies from their mothers’ breasts).  Let’s not be bought by
trinkets, food, FREE conferences, etc from the pump company reps; let’s
protect breastfeeding instead of breastmilk feeding.  Pumps are convenient
only when needed to protect the milk supply until the baby can breastfeed;
and hand expression usually can do just as good a job, if not better.

I informed many of the lactation supporters in my area and state about
Medela’s CODE violations; one of them excluded Medela at a recent
breastfeeding conference because of that.  My own ILCA affiliate will not
use the company as a sponsor for our conference next year if Medela does not
become CODE compliant.  If all the LACTNETTERS on this list were to be
similarly proactive, we would be affecting the company’s bottom line.
Hopefully, that would convince the company to rethink its behavior.

Warm regards,

Lee Galasso, MS, LLLL, IBCLC, RLC

Westchester County in NYS, USA

"Children Are Born with the Right to Breastfeed"

 


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