As many of you have been following events in Massachusetts regarding the  
prohibition of the hospital distribution of commercial gift bags, I thought I  
would provide a quick update on the issue. The Massachusetts Breastfeeding  
Coalition has been writing and meeting with numerous state officials to better  
understand why a regulation to ban the formula company gift bags has turned  
into such a heated debate. We have secured letters of support for the ban from  
numerous associations and agencies such as the Massachusetts chapters of the 
AAP  and ACOG, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, and the CDC. All of 
these  letters have been distributed to those who are involved in making the 
final  decision. We placed an ad in the Boston Parents Paper which you can see 
at our  website. We have an online petition for people to sign to show public  
support for the ban. We will be holding a demonstration in front of the  
Massachusetts state house on Friday to present the petition to the governor's  
office.
 
If you have not already done so, please consider going to our website at 
_www.massbfc.org_ (http://www.massbfc.org)  and signing this petition  today or 
tomorrow. We have posted more information on the issue for people to  read. You 
can see our banner and other graphics there also.
 
A number of our members have reported how tenaciously hospitals wish to  hold 
onto the practice of distributing formula company gift bags, stating that  
they will never give them up unless required to by a regulation. This devotion  
to formula company payoffs has an effect on breastfeeding services provided by 
 hospitals. A study in Massachusetts showed that acceptance of free formula 
was  significantly associated (p=0.03) with overall Ten Steps implementation.  
Conclusion: Rates of self-reported implementation of the Ten Steps are  
relatively high in Massachusetts. Step 1 implementation is significantly  associated 
with formula availability, and overall implementation [of the 10  steps is 
associated] with acceptance of free formula. Grizzard T, Bartick  M, Nikolov M, 
et al. Policies and practices related to breastfeeding in  Massachusetts: 
Hospital implementation of the 10 Steps. Maternal Child Health  Journal 2006.
 
As most hospitals have a policy on conscientious objection, where nurses  are 
not required to perform certain care practices if they violate the person's  
ethical or moral values, nurses can refuse to give out commercial discharge  
bags. Many hospitals seem to have sold out their ethical principles to formula  
companies. 
 
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, Massachusetts

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