In her Op-Ed piece of May 13 entitled “Formula for Disaster”, Jennifer 
Zajfe writes that the practice of eliminating “gift packs” of 
artificial baby milk in NY hospitals is not mom-friendly. What does it 
mean to be a mom-friendly hospital? If you are a mom whose 
breastfeeding goes smoothly and effortlessly, then the actions of the 
hospital staff and its policies may have little impact on you and your 
baby.  If, on the other hand, you encounter difficulties such as a 
cesarean birth, nipple pain, a baby who does not feed well, or any 
number of other complications, then the culture and policies of the 
hospital may determine your success or failure in breastfeeding your 
baby.

Babies are not successfully breastfed because their mothers receive 
marketing materials from artificial baby milk manufacturers. On the 
other hand, when these marketing materials, in the guise of “free 
gifts”, are given to mothers in the hospital, there is a high 
likelihood that many babies will be prematurely weaned, and not 
surprisingly--to that very same brand of artificial baby milk provided 
in the sample pack. Given that the majority of American women state 
that they wish to breastfeed their babies, there can be no advantage to 
mothers or babies in the dispensation of these false “gifts”.

The majority of women in the US do not exclusively breastfeed their 
babies and the majority of babies are weaned long before 6 months of 
age. Breastfeeding is blatantly and intentionally undermined by the 
aggressive marketing strategies of the artificial baby milk industry. 
Common sense alone would convince us that these “free samples” come at 
a very high price indeed--the price being the health and well-being of 
mothers and babies in the form of infectious and chronic diseases, 
obesity, and certain cancers in the child and breast and ovarian cancer 
in the mother, among a litany of other risk factors.

What is sadly surprising to me is that the writer is able to clearly 
delineate the risk factors for not breastfeeding, aknowledges that the 
majority of women wean prematurely and knows that her own birth 
interfered with breastfeeding her baby, yet she is unable to draw the 
logical and correct conclusion that the medicalization of birth, 
inadequate post-partum support and education and the intense marketing 
of artificial baby milk spelled the demise of breastfeeding for her and 
millions of other families. These are abhorrent practices in a culture 
that wants to be mother-friendly (and one hopes baby-friendly). 
Further, the deplorable practice of denying American women maternity 
leave that is on a par with the rest of the Western world must become a 
public policy imperative for anyone who cares about a 
mother/baby-friendly culture. Zajfe's reaction is confounding in that 
she reflects no anger at either a health care or social system that in 
almost every way disabled her attempts to breastfeed her child and 
focuses instead on an effort by that same system to set itself right. 
Her commentary is an elegent testement to the effectiveness of 
artificial baby milk marketing strategies.

The author writes, “Denying women formula samples also seems cruel from 
a socio-economic standpoint.” What is cruel is denying any infant the 
right to his fullest physical, emotional and psychological potential, 
no matter the socio-economic status of his family. It is in the best 
interests of the artificial baby milk companies if babies are not 
breastfed. It is the obligation of the health care community to ensure 
that babies have every opportunity to be breastfed. To that end, the 
only ethical option any hospital has is to eliminate marketing on its 
post-partum units. The argument that poor women are in some way 
assisted financially by receiving these “gifts” is downright ludicrous. 
The price of marketing is passed on to those very same women in the 
exorbitant cost of artificial baby milk, a cost that is borne either by 
the low-income family or taxpayers through the WIC program.

The solution to being mother-friendly is not to pass out marketing 
materials on behalf of an industry that reaps fortunes in the wake of 
breastfeeding failure. The solution is a dramatic reduction in the 
medicalization of birth by making the midwifery model the standard of 
care for pregnant women, by mandating accurate nutritional and 
breastfeeding education for health care providers, by providing 
comprehensive post-partum care to new mothers and by implementing 
public policies that assure women the right to paid maternity leave of 
at least one year. The solution takes much more effort and commitment 
than passing out free samples, but is worth every bit of time, money 
and effort and would mark a true commitment to a legitimately mother 
and baby-friendly culture.

Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC
________________________________________________________________________
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