Regarding the post from Marsha Walker:  "The major formula manufacturers in
the US are Mead Johnson (Bristol Meyers Squibb), Ross Products (Abbott
Labs), Nestle, and PBM Nutritionals. PBM Nutritionals bought the old Wyeth
manufacturing facility. Wyeth no longer makes or distributes?formula in the
US. The only formula company that made or distributed breast pumps was Ross
Products who over the years has distributed hand pumps from other pump
makers such as White River. Gerber makes a pump and distributes formula in
countries other than the US. Most of the pump makers are not?owned?by
formula companies. While some pumps on the market are certainly more like
toys than medical devices, formula companies have little to do with them."

 

Hi Marsha - I wanted to add to your post.  A few years ago, Ross,
manufacturer of Similac, went into a business deal with the then CEO of the
White River pump company.  The White River manual pump was distributed by
them to moms through some WIC programs.  It was an inexpensive pump that
could be sold for under $10, but we did not know what Ross was paying White
River for each pump.  I never heard a positive comment about how the pump
worked, and I was concerned that the Similac logo was placed on the part of
the pump that faced the mom the entire time she would be pumping.  (Need I
say more?)

 

Corporations have been doing very well financially by being "friends" of
breastfeeding.  Although Prolacta does not sell pumps to the public (only to
the hospitals?), it does reap huge monies by obtaining FREE breastmilk from
well-intentioned women and SELLING it to NICUs at the, last I heard of, rate
of over $35/ounce; it might even be up to $40/ounce by now (according to
reliable hearsay).  Is that ethical even in a capitalistic society?  The
Human Milk Bank Association of North America (HMBANA) is a much smaller
organization but it does not sell breastmilk to the needy; HMBANA only
charges a processing fee to those who can afford to pay it, and it is only
$3.50/ounce.  Why the huge difference in price between the two
establishments?  Why are NICUs so interested in purchasing the breastmilk at
an exorbitant rate when they were not so interested at the much more
reasonable rate?  Is breastmilk better when it costs so much more?  It seems
to me that the NICU hospitals think so, especially when some well-known
breastfeeding advocates endorse Prolacta and are/were on its scientific
advisory board!  You can go to http://www.prolacta.com
<http://www.prolacta.com/>  and read for yourself - under "About Prolacta"
click on Scientific Advisory Board and on Executive Team.

 

 

Warm regards,

Lee

 

Lee Galasso, MS, LLLL, IBCLC, RLC

Lactation Specialist

Lactation Center of Westchester/Putnam

Westchester County in NYS, USA

 

914-245-2206

[log in to unmask]

 

Vice-President

Westchester/Putnam/Rockland (WPR) Lactation Consortium

 

 

"Children are Born with the Right to be Breastfed"

 

 

 

 

 


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