What do breast pumps that don't work and formula that makes babies sick have
in common? They are both reportable to the FDA and to the respective
manufacturers. If anyone finds that a breast pump does not work, does not efficiently
withdraw milk, or harms a mother, this should be reported to the FDA's MedWatch
program and to the manufacturer. The First Years pump is an interesting
contraption. During a lecture I was presenting on breast pumps and pumping
protocols, a member of the audience related a story of a mother she had helped with
breastfeeding who told her that after applying this particular pump, the mother
could not get it to release the vacuum. The mother tried everything and just
as she was about to call the fire department, the pump fell off! After the
howling in the audience died down I could just imagine the fire department log
describing the call to extricate a woman's breast from a vacuum generating
pumping device!

This is the same as when you observe babies vomiting and experiencing
diarrhea with the new supplemented formulas. Each time a baby is made sick by one of
these products it should be reported. How else are health care professionals
going to convince the government that there are problems with these formulas?
Hospitals, health care professionals, and parents are being held hostage by an
industry that knows no bounds. When a company salesman can walk onto a
hospital maternity floor with no appointment and casually remove one product and
replace it with another, asking no one's permission and essentially forcing this
product onto an unsuspecting consumer, perhaps it is time to speak up.

As an addendum to Valerie's post on government commitment to breastfeeding,
check the following article on how NIH funds almost nothing to improve
breastfeeding but channels millions of dollars toward research to improve formula:
Brown LP, Bair AH, Meier PP. Does federal funding for breastfeeding research
target our national health objectives? Pediatrics 2003; 111:e360-e364 URL:
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/111/4/e360

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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