----- Original Message -----
From: "Nikki Lee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 6:02 PM
Subject: [LACTNET] advertising and revenue
> Dear Friends:
**Hi Nikki (and others),
Some cutting in your mail and leaving this in:
> Witness JHL and its recent back cover with its ad for a non-evidence based
> product.
**With regard to this, I sent a letter to the editors with the following
content:
--------------------
Possibly Code-compliant, yet unethical marketing
In the daily practice of lactation consultancy, it can be quite hard to
convince people of mother's and baby's natural capacities with regard to
breastfeeding.
All kinds of accessories can enter the scene, although with competent
guidance, mom and baby would have been able to feed at breast... at the bare
breast, that is.
As a result, warm pleas to promote a natural way of feeding and careful
restraint with regard to all kinds of gadgets that supposedly stimulate the
process are appropriate.
With that as a starting point, I was very disappointed to see the Lansinoh
ad on the backside of the May issue, advertising the 'Latch Assist'. Apart
from the discussion whether Lansinoh can be considered a Code-compliant
company or not (given the fact it is a Pigeon subsidiary), the ad strikes me
as unethical. The text is presumptuous at several points and does not
empower women to trust their breastfeeding abilities.
I cannot, for example, be convinced that the existence of a product is
useful for "encouraging and increasing the incidence and duration of
breastfeeding". Women don't breastfeed because there is a product that can
save them from "cumbersome and time-consuming" ways to address engorgement.
I also fail to see how using the instrument on one breast would help the
baby latch on the other, if the other breast is engorged as well. Using an
instrument in one hand is not going to help good positioning and
consequently will not stimulate an effective latch. The ad also claims that
one out of ten moms "finds it effective, easy-to-use, and comfortable and
much easier to use than a manual or electric breastpump to evert their
nipples". Without discussing the content of this statement here, I would
really like to see data regarding this claim! All in all, I perceive the
tone of the ad to be undermining; it does not focus on good management and
problem prevention, but on symptom fighting. It worries me that the (my!)
professional lactation consultant association did not dismiss this ad. I
hope it will turn out to be possible to use ads that are more supportive of
breastfeeding. It is hard enough as it is, to keep negative influences at
bay. We as experts on breastfeeding would do wise to not add to the
confusion by praising gadgets, but extend faith in the process instead. If
we have faith in the process, mothers will have faith in us as
professionals. No better ad than that. :-)
Marianne Vanderveen-Kolkena IBCLC, Netherlands
www.borstvoedingscentrumpantarhei.nl (also in English)
--------------------
I sure hope it will be published in the next issue in 'Letters to the
Editor'.
Bye,
Marianne Vanderveen IBCLC, Netherlands (and only four more days to go before
the summer holiday starts: yes!)
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