As many of you already know, the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition  just 
launched a national campaign to rid hospitals of the distribution of  formula 
discharge bags. Anne Merewood and myself serve as co-chairs along with a  
national committee that is putting together countrywide strategies to  eliminate 
this commercial barrier to breastfeeding. We have a growing website,  
_www.banthebags.org_ (http://www.banthebags.org) ,  where you can  access the latest in 
what is happening, see a history of our work in  Massachusetts, and check all 
of the hospitals that are currently bag free. We  have a listing of the bag 
free hospitals and ask that if your hospital is bag  free to please take a 
moment to fill out the website form to report this to us.  We have mugs, buttons, 
and pens for sale to help defray costs of this project,  as well as a Ban the 
Bags Toolkit available online or as a hard copy to help  others interested in 
taking this on. We want to share as much as possible  and would appreciate any 
suggestions of documents or resources that you would  find helpful. Anne and 
I launched the campaign at the ILCA conference with a 30  minute PowerPoint 
presentation which is available at the website for those  who missed it. 
 
We must be doing something right, as the second most frequent visitor to  the 
BTB website was Abbott Labs (Ross Products, Similac)!!! If you have  
questions or suggestions please contact us so we can make this a large concerted  
effort throughout the US. Mothers and babies are counting on us! Or as our motto  
says, "Hospitals should market health and nothing else."
 
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA 

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