As a result of my blog post on some aspects of a conference held in
London this week to promote breastfeeding, whereby code-breaking
companies such as Avent and Medela were stall exhibitors at a Department
of Health instigated, and Royal College of Midwives organised, conference...
It's come to my attention that one of the 'silver sponsors' of the
upcoming International Conference of Midwives, to be held, in Glasgow,
Scotland, next month... is... Martek, who are the company that harvest
soil bacteria for DHA for infant formula. The conference is being
organised by the Royal College of Midwives.
http://commercial.martek.com/infantnutrition/
http://www.internationalmidwives.org/Activities/ICMTriennialCongress/tabid/326/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
I'm now trying to garner information and resources on both Martek, their
product, its effects on infants, and some such details, in order to
present this to the Royal College of Midwives, prior to blogging about
this shocking and utterly unbelievable state of affairs.
I do remember that in the past few months, there have been quite a lot
of references and URLs on the subject of these DHA additives. Some
highlighted that they were harvested from soil bacteria. Some stated
that research had been done showing no improvement with babies fed
them. Others talked about bowel problems with babies fed them? The
company have been supplying DHA for formula for 14 years, so there
should be good track record!
I'd be very grateful if you could spam me please, with all the relevant
links (as URLS). I want to go into this informed, and able to inform
the RCM clearly and competently. From the look of it, they really do
need the advice! I'd heard grumblings about formula companies
advertising in their in-house magazine, but haven't seen any examples of
this. So if you have some examples of their magazine accepting money
from code-breakers, I'd be grateful for that too.
I'd also be grateful for some understanding of the implications for the
various 'professions' involved in lactation support in attending this
conference, given who it is taking sponsorship money from. As I
understand it from emails I've received today, the Royal College of
Midwives doesn't have a professional statement that inhibits members
from working with code-breakers, or taking money from them? However,
I'm sure I've seen comment that IBCLE does? (Sorry, I should have paid
more attention over the past couple of years!) In that vein, if anyone
had thought to attend the conference, but found they could not when they
realised who the sponsors were... please let me know. I won't name you,
but I'd like to get a sense of numbers.
I'm happy to receive personal stuff off-list, and keep it anonymous.
Worryingly, I've had a lot of requests to keep info sources
'anonymous'. Which always suggests a story is there somewhere. I do
think it's probably just no one wants to be seen to criticise others who
are working to support breastfeeding. But if by not being critical,
we've ended up with Code-Breakers in the posh lunch at the hall eating
salmon with the Great and Good, whilst the breastfeeding Mums are
consigned to the public toilets at the same event, and told to drink the
tap water in there... perhaps time to be critical?
Many thanks
Morgan Gallagher
(if the reference to the breastfeeding Mums being sent to the toilets to
drink tap water downstairs, whilst Code Breakers sat down to a posh
lunch upstairs, escapes you, scroll to the addendum on this blog:
http://one-of-those-women.blogspot.com/2008/05/juggling-ownership.html
It's the personal statement of one of the Mums who attended a photoshoot
as a breastfeeding Mum for the event (Monday 12th) and how she and the
babies were then treated. WARNING: treatment for blood pressure may be
required after reading.)
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