Dear teachers,

I just need to vent this out, so pls bear with me.

In my country, there seemed to be a 'new age'
Multi level marketing (MLM) product which the agent (who is a SAHM breafeeding mom) is claiming that with a combination of :

1) Religious power pumping every 2-3hrs coupled with a drink of their energizing soy protein drink + 2tablets of alfalfa (not exceeding 10tablets a day)
2) Drink 3liters of water a day
3) Lots of prayers (I'm not going to comment on this point)

with these 3criterias met, the mom WILL have 'enough' milk to feed her baby, and her milk will be creamier and improved quality.

This mom is promoting her product on our local Facebook Breastfeeding Moms page. Her marketing technique is to put up pictures of her EBMs together with her products in the background. This o course will hv moms asking her how she is able to express so much. She had even posted pictures of her stored EBM equivalent to 150oz+ at 1.5months postpartum and this is sending a very negative and misleading effect on the new moms. Some of the moms who are doctors on the Facebbok page had 'gently' told this mom off and she stopped marketing it for some time ad then she started again. 

Fast forward 2months later, I am getting a couple of emails frm moms who had tried the product and finding it not suited to them as they could not cope with the religious power pumping and constant consumption of the supplements. They are feeling stressed and they feel like a allure because they are unable to cope with the regime and get the 'desired' outcome. These moms are getting about 1-3oz per breast per session while the product is saying that mom is able to express 6-9oz per side per session, and we all know what stress can do to our milk supply.

To see what kind of product is this, I had bought a set myself. It consists of Vit B Complex, Vit C, Multi Vits, Alfalfa tablets and a soy protein drink. On the first day, after reading the canister that the dosage is 3tablespoons of the energizing soy protein, I found myself to have tremors n ADHD like symptoms of restlessness. The alfalfa tablets made me move my bowels about 5x before noon itself and I can only imagine if I had followed them and taken 10tablets. I reported this to the mom and she told me that the soy protein should not be 3tbsp but 1, as she too gets the same outcome when she takes 3tbsp.

2weeks ago, a gyne friend shared her case of a patient, 1month postpartum had seen her with massive hemorrhaging and it all started when the mom took the product. My friend advised her against it but the mom kept on insisting that the product makes her milk creamier.

Then another friend of mine told me that her recent health check up showed elevated uric acid levels in her body and her doctor told her to go easy on protein rich food and it when then she recalled having drank so many cups of the protein drink in the effort to 'stimulate' her mill supply.
The recent claim for this product is that if baby is having a growth spurt, the mom is to drink more of this soy protein drink between feeds n pumps and more water and it will make the supply go up.

I got into a debate with this mom when she had found out that I had commented on my friend's personal Facebook page after seeing that my friend had bought these products too. My friend is in the neighboring country n apparently, this product is 'popular' there too. The agent must have shared with this mom and saw my name and she confronted me.

I had told her that while it is a good MLM product on it's own but I do not agree on how it is being marketed to the moms. Its like telling the moms that breastfeeding is a success when the 3main criterias are met and to those who do not take the product had inferior quality milk. if there is a change in the milk quality n composition then there should be a clinical paper to support it the very least n not merely based on observation. It is very impossible for a working mom to keep taking 2-3hrs breaks to pump let alone empty her bladder so frequently because she drank 3l of water. Furthermore the product is not a Ministry of Health approved product yet and there is not such combo of the 'Breastfeeding Set' in the original product catalogue. Surely these combos will open up to possible side effects n non compatibility. Even doctor will not guarantee a drug's 100%efficacy!

The mom is defending herself that if I had not agreed on how the product has been marketed then I could have at least told her instead of sharing it with my friend. I could have at least pulled her aside n told her she was going in the wrong direction. I do not see an obligation for me to tell this mom how to run her business but what I can do is to share the facts n info to moms who come to me n let them make their decision.

The most sad part is this mom publically announced that she is on a mission to fatten up her newborn son n she had posted up pictures of her 2.5month old son weighing a whopping 7.9kgs with a tagline 'Brand X baby'. Now tell me, what is this saying to the new moms who are seeing this picture? For sure they will
start asking about how her son got so nice n chubby n then she will sell her product. Little did she know that she is putting her son at risk for metabolic disorder because he is overweight under the age of 1!
 
I'm really sorry for the long message and it may seem like I'm rambling rambling away but I figured that I might as well be telling this to a group of highly experienced professionals than to debate with a housewife who just wants to earn some extra pocket money!

Many thanks in advance,
Moe Fletcher, CLEC all the way from the tiny oil rich country in SEA

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