Here's the letter I sent:


To One Step Ahead:

While looking at your Spring 1997 catalog, I noticed the copy for item
#5512, the 3-Piece Nursing Collection. You state:

"At One Step Ahead we know that breastfeeding can be pretty hard on Mom.
And if your nursing infant senses your tension he can stop feeding too soon
and often becomes colicky. So we put together this special three-piece
Nursing collection to make breastfeeding easier and more comfortable for
you, so it is also more satisfying for baby."

This statement concerns me for several reasons. First, I do not believe
there is any medical evidence or research to support your claim that
tension in a nursing mother will cause colic in her baby.

Second, your statement that "breastfeeding can be pretty hard on Mom"
portrays breastfeeding in a negative light. In fact, breastfeeding makes
mothering much easier. Not only does it eliminate the hassles of
bottle-feeding and reduce occurrences of illness and subsequent doctor's
visits, but breastfeeding also releases certain hormones in the mother
which cause her to relax.

In fact, breastfeeding has been proven over and over again to be best for
mother and best for baby. If you really want to "help with baby every step
of the way," as your motto says, then your products and their descriptions
need to be supportive of breastfeeding. In this case, I feel that the copy
for the 3-piece Nursing Collection misrepresents breastfeeding in order to
create an exaggerated need for the product.

I hope you will reword the description of this product in your next catalog.

Sincerely,

   Betty Meeler
   Durham, NC