Beth has informed us that her hospital is allowing the distribution to patients of materials from Abbott Nutrition urging them to call a phone number for help with infant feeding questions and problems. They advertise the availability of lactation consultants. This was actually discussed on Lactnet a few weeks ago. The lactation consultants are provided by a company called Life Care that has an arrangement with Abbott. However, the IBCLCs who work for Life Care do not participate in the Abbott program, so Life Care has employees who took a short breastfeeding course answering breastfeeding questions from Abbott-referred mothers. Anyone can call themselves a lactation consultant as the term is not trade marked. The advertising of this program is somewhat misleading as mothers may think they are talking to a "real" lactation consultant but it is simply an employee who took a breastfeeding course.


If you work in a hospital that is referring breastfeeding mothers to Abbott for infant feeding help, you may wish to ask your Risk Management Department if it is wise to refer patients to resources that may not be able to provide optimal evidence-based support, especially in more complex situations. You could ask your Ethics Committee if it represents ethical practice for a hospital to sanction directing patients to infant formula company provided support as perhaps this is more of a formula marketing strategy than evidence-based services. You could check with your Corporate Compliance Department to see if this program is in the best interest of patients or merely another gimmick to draw mothers to formula company-sponsored programs. This seems to be yet another example of hospitals facilitating formula company marketing. Too bad they can't tell the difference between providing health care or peddling formula to their vulnerable patients.


Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome