Hello all,
I am the original poster for the two recent Medela discussions (mould in pumps and the calma teat).
I see a couple of issues here.
First, I don't think there is any debate about whether or not women "should" be pumping and feeding EBM in a bottle. I think everyone here can agree that there are real differences between breastmilk feeding and breastfeeding. But reallity is that we can do all we want to try to persuade mums to keep their babies exclusively at the breast, but the fact is that many, many moms choose or need to feed breastmilk away from the breast, even here in Canada where we are blessed with a paid one-year long maternity leave. I can totally see where pumps and EBM feeding devices are more frequently necessary in places who have shorter mat leaves. (I honestly don't know how mums in the USA manage to do it with just 6-8 weeks!) So EBM feeding is happening. Where does that leave us? Well, IMO, it is our job to try to make the best of it, teaching moms feeding methods that will have the least negative impact on breastfeeding. It is also our job to be knowledgeable about the feeding devices available in our local area, have a good idea of their impact on breastfeeding and share this information with mothers, in order to allow them to make informed decisions. This is why we need to talk about the medela teat. Is it really an improvement over the other teats on the market?
Secondly, in regards to the "medela bashing," I don't think that is what has been happening here. I think this has been an intelligent discussion that has allowed many of us to learn about the several products this company has offered from a source other than the manufacturer. I for one, have learnt a ton! Some have said that the comments made about medela were unprofessional and made IBCLCs. as a whole, look bad. I don't agree. I think it would be unprofessional of us not to discuss these issues and to share our observations. I think it is our job to evaluate the various products out there and is our job to inform each other, other HCPs and the public of which ones may be useful or which ones have potential problems. If it is not our job, than whose is it? We certainly cannot trust the manufacturers to give us the whole story, nor should we. I don't think there are many doctors who have enough of a focus on breastfeeding who will do it. Government agencies are not really evaluating these products. That leaves us, the breastfeeding specialists, to evaluate if products claiming to support breastfeeding actually do.
And thirdly, I don't think anyone was saying the calma teat is all bad. Just that the marketing claims of the company are exaggerated, not proven, and of questionable ethics. The company states in their literature that it "eliminates nipple confusion." It may possibly reduce some of problems associated with artificial nipple use, but it has not addressed all of the many variables involved, so this claim is problematic. And there are issues with the marketing video. It is clearly trying to mislead women on several issues; most blatant for me was the implication that mastitis means you have to stop breastfeeding and can only pump. Not only is this not true, but as we all know, while a pump can be a useful tool during mastitis, stopping to breastfeed and only using the pump could easily make things worse. So yes, I have to echo the previous posters who have stated that the issue was more with the marketing than the actual product.
Thank you all for your responses, I have learnt so much!
Jennifer Welch, IBCLC, LLLL
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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