Wendey said: "I would think another way to fight it would be "why send this
home with
breastfeeding moms who are just dumping it and giving it to shelters, let's
save it and send it home (or send extra home) with moms who really 'need'
it, the determined to bottlefeed from day one moms".

But the bottle feeding mothers (and their babies)  need protecting from
these marketing techniques as well -  why should their choice of formula be
affected by commercial practices that give them lots of so-called freebies
in the hope they will choose Brand X over Brand Y?

However, it would be an interesting exercise, to say to a rep 'thank you so
much for these lovely gifts. We are going to take out the samples of your
formula from the breastfeeding mothers' bags, and give them all to the
bottle feeding mothers, okay?'

Or, how about, 'thank you so much for these lovely gifts of Brand X
formula. We are going to include samples of rival Brand Y formula alongside
them - spares ones from Hospital Z who have decided not to give out
discharge packs.'

Or, even, 'thank you etc etc....we have removed all your branding from the
packs, taken off the labelling, and put everything into a plain brown
wrapper. Hope you don't mind.'

I betcha they won't like it, and it might violate a contract.

Protecting ABM-feeding mothers is one of the essential points of the WHO
code, too.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK