Just wanted to show everyone the press release on the new article regarding commercial formula gift bag distribution. This represents yet another look at this pervasive barrier to breastfeeding in US hospitals. We now have 300 hospitals reporting that they are bag free on our website at www.banthebags.org. There are a little over 3000 birthing hospitals in the US so we are at approximately 10% who have rid themselves of this plague. The Ban the Bags website has a wealth of information and help for those who are interested in eliminating these commercial bags from their hospitals. I am also available to help craft approaches that have worked. Once hospitals are bag free however, the formula companies have come up with alternative ways to peddle their products. We have reports of the gift bags moving to obstetric, pediatric, and clinic offices. Nurses in some of these hospitals now hand out 6 or 8 packs of formula bottles to mothers, "just in case." Make sure that your hospital is not backsliding down the slippery slope of marketing products for formula companies.

If your hospital has gone bag free remember to report this to the Ban the Bags website so we can keep track of them.


CHICAGO—A majority of U.S. hospitals on the East coast distribute formula sample packs to new mothers, contrary to recommendations from most major medical organizations concerned about the potential for distributing these packs to reduce breastfeeding rates, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Pediatr
ics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, the practice is changing significantly. 



“Packaged as smart diaper bags, the commercial sample packs contain formula, coupons, advertisements and baby products,” the authors write as background information in the article. “Typically, they are given free to the hospital by the relevant infant formula manufacturer and are distributed to patients by clinicians when mother and newborn are discharged from the hospital.” Institutions that have voiced opposition to this practice include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and World Health Organization. 

Anne Merewood, M.P.H., I.B.C.L.C., of the Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues contacted 1,295 hospitals in 21 Eastern states and the District of Columbia by telephone between October 2006 and March 2007. Of those, 1,215 (93.8 percent) distributed formula sample packs to at least some new mothers. Patterns were evident by state and by region. In New Hampshire, 70.4 percent of hospitals distributed the packs, while 100 percent of those in New Jersey, Maryland, Mississippi, West Virginia and the District of Columbia did so. 

Among 80 hospitals that were free of sample packs, 20 had eliminated the practice before 2000 and 60 since 2000. “The proportion of bag-free hospitals has risen significantly between 1979 and 2006,” the authors write. “Elimination of sample packs was ongo
ing, with clusters of activity in certain regions such as New York City and Massachusetts.” The reductions in these areas were likely associated with focused public health efforts to eliminate the packs, the authors note. 

“Exclusive breastfeeding rates among young infants are discouragingly low,” with only 11 percent of U.S. infants exclusively breast-fed at 6 months, they conclude. “Formula sample packs have been shown to undermine breastfeeding, and their elimination from U.S. hospitals may help to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates nationally. The prevalence of sample pack distribution is disturbing and incongruous given extensive opposition, but encouraging trends suggest that the practice may be curtailed in the future.” 

(Arch Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162[9]:823-827 ) 

See the link below for a nice story on this in the Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-formula-samples_tuessep02,0,852428.story

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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