As I read the posts about the Code, I still wish to remind all of us that the Code is a minimum standard, not an ideal. Companies, governments, organizations, and individuals can choose to go beyond the Code guidelines and many have done so. The Code does not include breast pumps. The Code is not about the process of of feeding pumped milk to infants, it is not about being anti-bottle if bottles are required to feed an infant, it is not about harming the provision of breastmilk, it is not about our attitude towards bottles, it is not about how old the Code is, it is not about the use of breast pumps, it is not about the Code not anticipating clinical situations we see today---the Code is about how the products within its scope are marketed. The Code is designed to restrict inappropriate marketing practices that cause a mother to avoid or abandon breastfeeding or replace her milk with a substitute. The Code calls upon companies who market products within its scope to do the following:

·         Not advertise to the general public.
·         Not distribute gifts or free samples to mothers, health care workers, or health care facilities.
·         Not promote products within the scope of the Code in health care facilities.
·         Avoid the use of pictures or text that idealizes the use of breastmilk substitutes, bottles, and nipples on all packaging.
·         Avoid references to proprietary products in all information materials.
·         Not pay employees on a commission basis for sales of breastmilk substitutes, bottles, and nipples.
·         Ban employees from training new or expectant mothers.
·         Ensure that products within the scope of the Code when sold meet established standards.

The aim of the Code is to provide safe and adequate nutrition for all infants by protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding, and ensuring the proper use of breastmilk substitutes, when needed, based on adequate information and appropriate marketing and distribution.  Feeding bottles and artificial nipples are included within the scope of the Code as their marketing often equates their use as similar to the breast, misleading consumers into thinking that a bottle and nipple can perform like a lactating breast. Manufacturers can make all the bottles and nipples they want but they are obligated to market them in a manner consistent with the Code. No pictures of bottles and nipples can appear on the packaging, no pictures of mothers and babies can appear on the packaging, text cannot idealize their use by comparing them to the breast or breastfeeding, they cannot be advertised to the public in any medium, all descriptive text must be factual, free bottle samples are not be used as prizes or distributed in any manner. This is what the Code requires and what companies need to do to meet their obligartions under the Code.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA
 



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