>The Hale book is published by Pharmasoft, which is a leading pharmaceutical

>software company in Sweden, with offices in North America.
>So I would imagine that this company has a variety of business arrangements

with various pharmaceutical companies

There are many companies with similar names out there nowadays. Pharmasoft
Publishing is Amarillo-based, and was started, as I understand it, by Dr.
Hale to publish Medications in Mothers' Milk. It has now expanded to publish
other lactation related materials. The website is www.ibreastfeeding.com.

The pharmaceutical companies can buy and give away any book they like. MMM
is the leading reference for medications during lactation. Aside from
pretending to 'support' breastfeeding, or attempting to be seen as
'healthcare professionals,' I am surprised that Ross is distributing this.
Most medications are compatible with breastfeeding, and that is not a
message formula companies want to have disseminated. May the truth prevail
in spite of them. I believe that Dr. Hale would be appalled to learn this is
happening. 

>This very same company sponsors a breastfeeding conference in Texas and I 
>only remember enthusiastic posts regarding this conference.  So I guess I
am somewhat amazed that people are troubled by the distribution of the book,
when they aren't troubled by conference sponsorship.

Just to clarify, it is Pharmasoft Publishing (well, it's Mrs. Hale who works
very hard to organize it:-)that put the Amarillo conference on. I've
attended both years and plan to go again this year. I've been to lots of
conferences, and this conference has been the very best I've ever attended
in terms of the cutting edge research, the depth of the presentations and
the phenomenal speakers. 

Hope this helps clear things up,

Anna Swisher, MBA, IBCLC
Abundant Blessings
Austin, TX

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

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