Crystal,
Below please find an Abstract from Cochrane Review on commercial discharge
packs for breastfeeding women.
The full article lists all of the studies reviewed and will provide more
detail.
Hope this helps.
Roberta Cricco-Lizza RN PhD, MPH


Accession Number
00075320-100000000-01574

Author
Donnelly, A; Snowden, HM; Renfrew, MJ; Woolridge, MW

Title
Commercial hospital discharge packs for breastfeeding women.

Source
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2, 2004.

Abstract
Background:

Exclusive breastfeeding until around six months of age, followed by the
introduction of solids with continued breastfeeding, is considered to be the
optimal nutritional start for newborn infants.

Objectives:

To determine whether the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding is
affected by giving mothers commercial discharge packs in hospital which contain
artificial formula or promotional material for artificial formula. These packs are
those which are commonly given to mothers on leaving hospital after giving
birth (thus discharge packs).

Search strategy:

Comprehensive electronic search of the register of clinical trials maintained
and updated by the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group and CINAHL and
MEDLINE.

Selection criteria:

All randomised controlled trials with or without blinding to examine the
effects of commercial discharge packs on breastfeeding.

Participants: Consenting postpartum women who initiate breastfeeding while in
hospital or immediately upon discharge.

Interventions: Commercial discharge packs which contain free samples of
infant formula or promotional material versus non commercial discharge packs
(specifically those from which free samples of infant formula have been removed or
have been replaced with e.g. breast pads) or no pack.

Main outcome measures: The proportion of women breastfeeding at six weeks and
3 months (13 weeks) postpartum.

Other outcomes: Rates of breastfeeding at other fixed time points between 0
and 6 months postpartum.

Data collection and analysis:

Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer.

Main results:

Nine randomised controlled trials involving a total of 3730 women were
analysed. The studies only included women from North America. The meta-analysis
showed that when comparing commercial discharge packs with any of the controls (no
intervention, non-commercial pack and combinations of these), exclusive
breastfeeding was reduced at all time points in the presence of commercial hospital
discharge packs.

There was no evidence to support the conjecture that use of hospital
discharge packs causes the early termination of non-exclusive breastfeeding. Where the
introduction of solid food was measured, giving a commercial pack (with or
without formula) reduced the time before solid food was introduced.

Conclusions:

The giving of commercial hospital discharge packs (with or without formula)
appears to reduce the number of women exclusively breastfeeding at all times
but has no significant effect upon the earlier termination of non-exclusive
breastfeeding.



             ***********************************************

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