>
>1.  What about giving formula bags to the bottle feeding mothers?


Not ethical. Under the WHO code all mothers, whatever their feeding
method, are protected against marketing practices of this sort. If
someone uses formula, she should be able to base her choice of brand
on unbiased, health-led advice from her health professional - not on
which brand had the cutest pictures on the bag, or which one happened
to have the deal with the hospital.

>
>2.  The Nursery Chief has said before that he is the one who gets the calls
>in the middle of the night from BF moms who have just gone home and are up
>all night with a crying baby.  Of course, his suggestion to them is to give
>a bottle from the diaper bag they just took home, and go to sleep.  The
>Breastfeeding Helpline that I answer is a warmline that goes to voice-mail
>during the night.


Can your voicemail message  say something about the risks of formula?

>  I don't
>think that this is still such a problem for him, but I don't think that he
>will acknowledge this.

Is he auditing these calls?  He should be - ethically speaking.  The
number of calls made, and the information given to the mothers who
call, should be on record. If you think he is exaggerating the number
of calls he gets, then an audit would show it up. I mean, if he is
just getting one call a week, or two a month, that is surely no big
deal (presumably it is his job!) . In any case, it doesn't take much
more time to give good information as opposed to poor information....

I may be speaking out of ignorance here, as I never know how
different our healthcare systems are. But I imagine you are the same
as we are with regard to audit - every piece of info/advice that's
given to mothers should be documented, as a protection for the
practitioner who may be called upon in some later legal situation.
Now that is the theory - I know many mothers in the UK are given info
and advice that isn't documented, but this would not be the case with
a call to the hospital in the middle of the night .

Good luck!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html