This reluctance to use a Consent Form shows their belief that human milk
and formula are interchangeable equivalents, or that human milk "just adds
a few vitamins" to the "normal" infant diet of formula.

Get a copy of INFACT Canada's 14 Risks of Formula Feeding. Each Risk is
illustrated with summaries and citations to 2-3 published studies. I
believe LLLI's website has a similar listing. Try the ProMom site, Linda
Smith's bflrc.com and several others.

I would hazard a guess that because the hospital (like mine does) uses and
has used formula so freely without any thought that there might be a
problem with it, that by putting out a Consent Form, they are telling their
patients that they were wrong before, and may be setting the hospital up
for future lawsuits based on their past actions.

And the recent discussions of misinformation and different information from
different people is another illustration of the need for a Consent Form. No
more can staff use their own personal experiences as the basis for their
infant feeding advice to new moms; i.e. letting exhausted mom sleep. The OB
nurses in my hospital consider it their responsibility to help mom recover
by helping her get some sleep. They do that by their maternal-style selling
of the oppty to sleep while they take care of baby for mom, just for one
night.

BTW: that's another resource: Marsha Walker's Just One Bottle on her NABA
website. 
www.naba-breastfeeding.org

BTW again: it is common for hospitals to call around to other local
hospitals to see what they are doing when they are unsure of their
position. If they really believed in what they are doing, they would not be
afraid to set the example in their community for other hospitals to follow
THEM!

Phyllis
paddling in the same boat you are...
 
> At our hospital we use a consent form to supplement breastfed babies.  I

> received it several years ago at a workshop and have used it ever since.

> Now I have been told that we must stop using it.  Risk managment feels it

> is a liability risk.  A neonatoligist called around to several hospitals

> in Florida and found no one was using one.  He feels it is a waste of time

> and questiosn why we are even using it.

 

--- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
--- Glendale, AZ, USA
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