Two threads to comment on. First, what to do with unwanted commercial discharge bags. This thread first started with what to do with the items left over from several discharge bags that had been used to show a hospital CEO what was contained in them. My comment to that had been, just throw the stuff out. However, to bring this problem to light, the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force had a project where mothers could bring in their discharge bags, dump them in a barrel, and receive a free breastfeeding T-shirt in return. The collected bags were sent back to the manufacturer. We can do a lot more to help mothers refuse the bags and give hospitals the message that women are sick of being marketing targets on maternity units. All prenatal classes or encounters are an opportunity to give mothers information on why to refuse the bag or to give them a little baby gift in exchange for refusing to accept bags in the hospital. They can also be given a little form letter to send to the hospital protesting the practice and asking that the time nurses spend with formula reps and handling the bags?could better?be spent helping new mothers breastfeed.

A new article on gift bags was just published in Breastfeeding Medicine 2007; 2:255-259. Philipp B, et al. Distribution of industry sponsored diaper bags from maternity facilities in Massachusetts. I will have an article on discharge bags in the March/April issue of Mothering Magazine. Several other articles on this issue are in press. These may be of help when working on eliminating bags from you institution.

As to Code compliance issues with Medela or any other business that manufacturers or distributes bottles and artificial nipples--- the violation comes with the appearance of the bottles and nipples on Medela's website as well as on?any packaging showing the bottles and nipples. This is marketing directly to the consumer of products that are covered within the scope of the Code. Even though breast pumps are not within the scope, bottles and nipples certainly are and Medela is now a bottle/nipple manufacturer/distributor. Supporting statements about breastfeeding do not absolve the violation.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA


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