But we will continue to 
upport Medela and sell their products.  I hope somewhere down the road the CODE 
ill be reviewed and Medela will no longer be viewed as the buy guy.  I don't 
elieve they are.  They have a good product and they are just trying to do the 
ame as the rest of us......support breastfeeding women the best way we know 
ow.

I felt that I just needed to reply to this particular paragraph of a recent post. The Code is not about breast pumps nor which are good or bad. Breast pumps are not covered under the Code. Medela distributes feeding bottles and nipples which are covered under the Code. This obligates the company to market them in a manner consistent with the Code. The Code does not need to be reviewed to allow Medela to market feeding bottles and nipples inappropriately. Betty Sterken of INFACT Canada and myself of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy (NABA) wrote a document that explains with examples why Medela is not meeting its obligations under the Code. You can view this at http://www.ilca.org/files/in_the_news/whats_new_at_ilca/MedelaeGlobearticle-Mar14.pdf. INFACT Canada and NABA are the IBFAN organizations for our respective countries that monitor the Code and write the country reports. Medela's breast pump product is not the issue. Their pumps can certainly be used if the clinician feels that they best meet the needs of the mother and baby.

The Code does not need to be changed to allow inappropriate marketing of feeding bottles and artificial nipples. Medela needs to change its marketing of these products. This is not difficult. It is not hard to understand how to remove idealized language from product descriptions, how to remove photos of bottles, mothers and babies from packaging, how to avoid marketing feeding bottles and nipples to the public, and how to refrain from offering feeding bottles as prizes and giveaways--all actions that Medela has engaged in and continues to do so. I feel we are straying far from the intentions of the Code and hope that we can realize that the Code is about how products within its scope are marketed.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA




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