Barb,

Since Elisheva is nomail right now, I will repost her summary of what makes a good letter of concern.  Her hints were helpful to me in my letter to Reader's Digest and I think are great for anyone wanting to write such a letter.  She was giving advice to someone whose sister received ABM from a
formula company who bought her name from a store where she shopped for baby-related items.   She wrote:


<<One good format for letters like this is:

First paragraph:  I am writing to tell you how upset I am that xyz [one
sentence total, or maximum two]

Second paragraph:  What happened -- plain vanilla version, just the one
paragraph, up to four sentences.  But in this case probably you can do it in
one, which is way better.  "My sister and I visited your store when she was
six weeks post partum, and the formula company Mead-Johnson tells us that
they got her name, which they used to market formula to her directly, from
your mailing list."

Stuff not to include here -- about yourselves (tough breastfeeding history,
what you care about, your personal values) -- just distracts them from the
problem, which is what THEY did!

Third paragraph:   Why this is awful.   Again, brief.   Allow yourself, say,
one sentence per annoying aspect of their actions.  "Customers should be able
to rely on confidentiality from you, and it makes us angry that you sold our
names without getting our permission.   It especially makes us angry because
studies have shown that when mother get free formula in the mail, their
breastfed children end up weaned to formula sooner, and that means that when
you sell breastfeeding mothers names to formula manufacterers you are
indirectly responsible for the worsened health and happiness of all those
mothers and babies."

Again -- this isn't about YOU, your problems, etc etc.  It's about THEM and
THEIR bad actions.   No lobbying, no websites, no vilification of the formula
manufacturers.  If you are in the United STates mentioning the WHO Code
essentially guarantees that no one will pay any attention to your specific
problem, so even if you are thinking globally, in this letter confine
yourself to acting locally.  And if it's longer than four sentences all
together it is certainly not going to be absorbed -- and even four is pushing
it.

Fourth and FINAL paragraph:   What you want them to do about it.   Maybe two
sentences here.   Maybe, "I hope this was a brief error on your part, and
that you will be able to reassure me that your company cares about its
customers confidentiality, and their health.   Please call me at [your
number]  (or write, or whatever) to tell me what steps you are taking to be
sure this kind of appaling disregard for us will not happen again."

In this last paragraph be really, really specific.    Do you want them never
t sell your name?  without asking? only to formula manufacturers?  etc.
They may or may not do what you want, but they can't ever do it unless they
know just what it is.    If one of your goals is to make them learn about why
bf is good, put it here.   "I hope you will educate yourself with some of the
enclosed articles to learn why you have an obligation not to undermine the
breastfeeding relationships of your customers."    But only if you think
learning will make a difference -- if you think that something else will make
more of a difference than hit that instead.  "My sister is shocked that you
would attack her breastfeeding relationship, and unless we hear in the next
week that you are no longer going to sell names to formula manufacterers we
will consult with our lawyers to learn what remedies etc etc."   Well, that
one is pushing it, surely; but the point is that it is specific.>>

I thought this was a great formula for letter-of-concern-writing.  Hope this helps and again, thanks to Elisheva!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined.
John S. C. Abbot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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