>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/21/romney_rebuffed_on_hospital_gift_bags/
>
>Governor Mitt Romney was rebuffed today in his effort to assure that 
>new mothers in Massachusetts can continue receiving traditional 
>parting gifts when they leave the maternity ward: a bag filled with 
>infant formula, coupons, and other goodies paid for by the formula 
>companies.
>
>(see link for full article)
>
>Janice Reynolds


Janice, thanks for posting this. I was astonished, in fact.....I 
speak from the luxury of a place which has not had formula in gift 
bags for about 30 years, so we don't have the problem of fighting it 
(though we have plenty of other things wrong with bf support, don't 
worry!). Why was I astonished? At the weakness of the argument of 
someone who is a professional politician!

The governor thinks giving away free formula is protecting a mother's 
right to make a decision on how to feed her baby....how does this 
work, I want to ask him? How on earth does the removal of a 'gift' 
remove a mother's freedom to make a decision about whether to formula 
feed???

A little while ago, a newish Italian restaurant in my neighbourhood 
ran a promotion - if three friends brought a fourth, the fourth 
person got their pizza  free.  You might even say they made a 'gift' 
of the fourth pizza.

After a few weeks, the promotion ended. Did the pizza-lovers start to 
complain that somehow they had their rights to eat pizza taken away 
from them? That they were no longer free to choose pizza, and were 
being forced to eat at home (or eat Chinese, or Indian, or at the 
burger bar)?

No. They recognised it for what it was - a commercial promotion, 
designed to get them to eat more pizza.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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