How those unwanted formula samples that arrive in the mail is a question I have been answering for years! NABA receives this question constantly as formula companies escalate their marketing activities. Here are a few ways they get your name:


- Your name is captured when you purchase baby items with a credit card. Many families try to pay with cash when they can to avoid unsolicited mailings
- Your information is captured when you provide your zipcode to the cashier when you check out of baby stores. Don't give your zipcode to cashiers. They do not need it to process your transaction
- Your information may be shared with formula companies by the company that takes pictures of newborn babies in the hospital
- Your contact information may be shared with formula companies when you sign up for baby-related clubs, sweepstakes, prizes, contests, and baby magazines, or any other baby related activity where you provide your name and address


But, you say, I had a home birth and never did any of the above activities. How do they still get my name? Birth certificates are part of the public record. Anyone can check on this. All you need to do is check state birth registries to find out the name and address of every baby that was born in the US each day. 


You can return all unwanted items to the sender. One clever breastfeeding coalition (I think in Arizona) designated a day when they set up big trash barrels and asked all mothers to trade in their formula discharge bags for a nice T shirt. All of the bags were sent back to the formula companies. We could do this with all the unwanted formula samples, gifts, and coupons that are received by pregnant and new mothers. Perhaps local breastfeeding coalitions or organizations would like to do this as a way to call attention to the unethical marketing practices engaged in by the formula industry. Invite the press and take lots of pictures!!


Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA 






 

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