Barb asks a wonderful Q:  "Thanks for all the great comments about Mead 
Johnson's sponsership of NRP.  My question for you is this, as an IBCLC, I 
should not partake in anything
sponsered by a formula company yet I must re-certify in NRP as an OB nurse.  
I'm
sure there are more of you out there like me.  Does this go against ILCA 
ethics?"

Back to Liz now.

The IBLCE Code of Ethics (www.iblce.org) requires at Tenet 24 that IBCLCs 
support and adhere to the portions of the International Code of Marketing of 
Breast-milk Sustitutes that pertain to health care workers.  And as well all 
know, the "International [or WHO] Code" says that formula hawkers are not 
supposed to offer (and health care workers are not supposed to accept) any 
gifts, promotional devices, samples etc etc etc.  So Barbara is absolutely 
correct that we should be refusing the pens, cups and dinners when the 
formula hawkers inappropriately offer them to us.

Here is the scope of the International Code:

"Article 2. Scope of the Code
"The Code applies to the marketing, and practices related thereto, of the 
following products: breastmilk substitutes, including infant formula; other 
milk products, foods and beverages, including bottle-fed complementary 
foods, when marketed or otherwise represented to be suitable, with or 
without modification, for use as a partial or total replacement of 
breast-milk; feeding bottles and teats. It also applies to their quality and 
availability, and to information concerning their use."  (See 
http://www.ibfan.org/english/resource/who/fullcode.html)

Hmm.  I'm seeing anything in there about neonatal resuscitaiton procedures.  
I'd say the Code doesn't apply at all.  Sheesh -- you gotta marvel at the 
ability of the formula hawkers to find the loophole.  They know they can't 
get to us through the front door, so now they are are using the back door.

So Barb should not find her IBCLC certification at risk if she attends this 
required training.  But she can certainly let her colleagues know that she 
thinks this sort of corporate sponsorship of required training, by *any* 
pharmaceutical manufacturer or corporate entity doing business in the health 
care arena, is wildly inappropriate and a conflict of interest.

Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

_________________________________________________________________
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