MetroWest Daily News
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=133051&format=text
Moquin: Its time to promote breastfeeding
By Carla Moquin/ Guest Columnist
Saturday, June 17, 2006

Mitt Romney has succeeded in making sure that baby formula companies
can continue to give new parents free samples as they check out of the
hospital. We shouldn't be surprised; babies aren't known for big
campaign contributions.
   Romney claims that political considerations aren't an issue.
According to him, it's about depriving "women of the right to decide
whether they want to breastfeed their babies or give them formula."
   Makes sense -- after all, if hospitals didn't give out free
formula, a new parent would have to go shopping, look at the high
price of formula, and make a conscious decision to spend around $1,000
in the next year on artificial food that has zero immune system
benefits and is nutritionally inferior to mothers' milk.
   If mothers understood that breastfeeding gives babies stronger
immune systems; lowers their risk of developing diabetes, cancer, and
numerous other diseases; and provides a free and easy way to keep them
content, mothers might actually decide to breastfeed, hurting formula
companies' profits.
   But maybe Mitt really does care about personal freedom. So, here
are some more ideas for hospital freebies. Let's have hospitals give
free cigarettes to lung cancer patients after chemotherapy. We should
also hand out free wine after AA meetings.
   Tempting people who are already under pressure into making a
seemingly easy but harmful choice, rather than a healthy one, is
irresponsible no matter what the situation. Reliable studies have
shown that mothers who are given free samples of formula from the
hospital stop breastfeeding much sooner than mothers who are not given
these samples. When these mothers switch to formula, strangely enough,
they nearly always continue to use the brand that was given to them at
the hospital.
   When most mothers in Massachusetts leave the hospital, they do
plan to breastfeed. But many parents aren't well-informed about the
risks of not breastfeeding, and formula companies have far larger
marketing budgets than do breastfeeding educators.
   When a new mom goes home with her free formula, in those early
weeks of sleep deprivation, she may think, "Formula must be just as
good as nursing; after all, my doctor gave it to me." So she makes up
a bottle of formula and her partner gives it to the baby. Many babies
decide they prefer the easier sucking a bottle offers, especially if
they are given a bottle before they are about five or six weeks old.
   So, the next time the mother tries to nurse, the baby refuses. She
gives the baby another bottle, and the cycle continues. A few days
later, the mother discovers that she has lost her milk. She now has no
choice but to buy formula for the next year, and her child is likely
to get sick far more often.
   America isn't the only place where formula companies give out free
samples. They also do it in developing countries, where clean water is
rare. The cycle of mothers losing their milk occurs there, too. This
practice continued until the World Health Organization realized that
thousands of babies were dying without the protective effect of
antibodies from breastfeeding and due to the formula being mixed with
contaminated water, and the WHO convinced several governments to ban
this marketing tactic.
   Breastfeeding is so important for babies' and mothers' health that
several state agencies across the country are actually allowing
mothers to bring their babies to work with them for the first four to
six months of life in order to promote breastfeeding, because the
burden on the state health care system is so much lower when babies
are nursed. Officials in these states realize that, long term,
everyone benefits when babies breastfeed.
   If a mother cannot or chooses not to breastfeed for long, that is
unquestionably her right. But lack of adequate social support and
societal discomfort with nursing in public has already made our
nation's breastfeeding rate among the lowest in the world, to the
detriment of our children. Politicians, much less health care
providers whose first principle is "do no harm," shouldn't make the
choice to breastfeed even harder.
   Carla Moquin lives in Framingham.

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