The Ross, Meade Johnson (and Wyeth, in the past) reps start in on medical students.  The U of Utah, where my ex-husband went to medical school, had what I would be willing to bet was the highest birth rate of any medical school, and they passed out formula like there was no tomorrow!  It was actually a great opportunity for the reps to "court" physicians who would recommend their formulas, having been given as much of it as their babies could drink for a whole year.  The students especially appreciated it, since the majority who had children were pretty broke.  One of my ex's classmates wrote in the yearbook that the only way his three children survived was with the formula from the rep.  

We adopted our first son in April, 1983, two months before my ex was graduating.  Having had to get a cash advance on a charge card to pay the adoption fees, we appreciated being able to get free cases of Enfamil.  Of course, I would have much preferred to never have to give him a drop of formula (and used less and less of it with subsequent babies).  What really puzzled me was that so many other students'/doctors' wives, who could have breastfed SO much easier than I could, used the free formula as another excuse for not nursing, even after their husbands were in practice and making a good income.  I suspect that at least some of them might have gone to a bit more effort to nurse their babies, had it not been for the huge cases of free formula that would arrive on their doorsteps on a regular basis.

I have actually been amazed at how few physicians' families breastfeed their babies.  It is a very serious problem because it not only means that their children are shortchanged, it means that the physician is less than helpful, if not hurtful, to patients, not just in what they say to them, but in what the mothers see in their clinics.  If there is any depiction of breastfeeding at all in their clinics it is, of course, from Ross or Meade/Johnson.  I had a Medela breastfeeding poster framed nicely, for my ex's clinic, but I had to put it in the hall by his exam rooms and, as soon as we separated, the picture disappeared.  The other OB's wives had breast implants, which they did a pretty good job of flaunting, but thought nursing a baby was disgusting.

I will never forget the time we attended an ACOG conference in London.  I was nursing Thomas, who was five months old.  I met several other wives who had babies about the same age.  Not only were none of them nursing, but they had all left their babies in the states. My nursing in front of them obviously made them uncomfortable.  Since Thomas is black and my ex and I are both white, it was quite obvious to everyone that we had adopted him.  I didn't say anything to any of these other wives, but had a couple tell me why they thought they couldn't nurse their babies.  One said that she couldn't nurse because, when her baby was a newborn, he want to nurse every one and a half hours.  However, she also mentioned that there had been people who had encouraged her to bottle feed, saying that, since her husband (who was just finishing his residency) had to spend so much time at the hospital, she needed to be able to spend time with him whenever she had the chance, and not be "tied down" by her baby.  I felt badly for her, because I got the feeling she might have had a nursing baby with her on that trip, too, had she gotten a little support from someone. 

Anyway, I think stopping the free formula to physicians' families might have a positive effect on the overall breastfeeding rate.

Darillyn

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