With the addition of the New York City hospitals and the 17 from the Portland, Oregon area, we now have 220 hospitals that have gone bag free. We feel that this has been a tremendous step forward in helping to?protect breastfeeding and congratulate all who have worked so hard to make this happen. However, we have more work to do. The media has put a spin on these events, claiming that the hospitals have banned bottles and formula and that mothers will no longer be able to obtain formula or feed it to their babies when in any of these hospitals. The formula spokespeople twist the issue to one of choice. If you have the opportunity to write letters, respond to blogs, or speak with the media, please make sure that we keep them oriented to the real issue, which is one of marketing. The bags have nothing to do with choice and everything to do with an unethical practice that places babies at potential risk.

Visit the Ban the Bags website for updates and help with removing the bags in your institution. The site is www.banthebags.org. New material is added frequently and we do not want to lose the momentum we have gathered during this year's World Breastfeeding Week. If you need help with this effort at your hospital, don't hesitate to contact me. We seem to have so many barriers to breastfeeding, but perhaps we can at least remove this one in as many hospitals as possible.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA



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