I haven't posted in some time (amazing how busy you can be when you aren't "working"!) but I wanted to chime in here. My youngest graduated from high school on Friday and, what with having a car accident on Thursday (no one hurt) and witnessing one on Friday (making us almost late for graduation); I didn't have time to be on my computer at all for a few days. So I didn't know about the 20/20 program. Not, that is, until my dh and I were having a quiet, late supper at a restaurant after the graduation (while dd was visiting friends) and the TV that was mounted over my dh's head showed something to do with breastfeeding. As the sound was not on and it wasn't closed captioned, I had to catch a waitress and ask for the sound to be turned up. It took a few minutes for all this, so I missed some of the program, but I caught much of it and boy, was I astonished! My dh and I were just talking about the ad campaign. Then, Saturday I got my kit in the mail. So, tonight I'm catching up on my LN's (weekend was full!) and I caught this post which I wanted to respond to. <<We are at war with big business. The formula companies and all the pharmaceutical companies don't want the US to have higher breastfeeding rates, it's not good for their bottom line.>> I don't make a point of defending big business because I usually agree about their tactics. However, I feel compelled to say please be careful about making a blanket statement like this one. My dh works for Eli Lilly, which is a breastfeeding-friendly, family-friendly company. They have pump rooms and pumps and an LC you can contact for help (not me!). Let's just be careful to assign blame where we know it belongs. Not all pharmaceutical companies have ties to formula companies. On a related note, I have been occupied of late with the committee that put out our state's safe infant sleep brochure and which has been tasked with revamping it. I am on this committee along with Dr James McKenna (a real saint!) and we have both once again been subject to some pretty hateful slings and arrows! I am still astounded, after having been through this before, with how predictably biased some doctors can be! This issue is similar to the formula issue in that the physicians who align themselves "against" us, pick and choose which research they will believe and which they will not. And they are not even nice about disagreeing! (This also happened to me in my previous hospital job where the neo/peds would just say they didn't agree with xyz research that I showed them if they didn't like what their conclusions were!) We must be so careful what we say and how we say it. They do not care. They talk to us like we are ignorant morons. They accused us of having an agenda that colors our views, yet absolutely will not accept that this is true of them. One of the physicians made this statement, "one infant who dies of suffocation is one too many." I asked her if she would make the statement, "one infant who dies from solitary sleeping in a crib is one too many", because this has happened. She did not answer me. We have at least all agreed to add something about the infant lives that can be saved by breastfeeding, which is a major victory! Still, as I told Dr. McKenna, it makes me want to go back to planting flowers. At least they don't call me names! I'll post the link when we finish this brochure. It's shaping up to be something I'll feel good about and that's no small accomplishment for this committee!!! We need more stories like the 20/20 one. I especially liked the line by Dr. Gordon about how money does influence medicine. That needs to become a huge issue. I am afraid, though, that with the passing of a former, much-loved president the day after this 20/20 show and at the launch of the campaign, some publicity over this issue will be lost which we could really use. Marsha, who is also preparing for older dd's wedding in 3 weeks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html