Nan Jolly points out that the cynics amongst us, and I certainly include
myself in that group, may see the move on the part of a major brand feeding
bottle and teat manufacturer to acquire a major breast pump company and the
accompanying PR gyrations as marketing strategy.  And look how effective it
is already - the bottle brand has been praised warmly right here on Lactnet,
the forum on which subscribers frequently bemoan the lack of awareness on
the part of our less enlightened colleagues about how formula reps
ingratiate themselves with maternity care staff and thus turn them into
unpaid ambassadors for the companies.  All they've done so far is put out a
press release.  Can we not at least wait until we see hard proof that they
follow up the intentions they profess, before prostrating ourselves at their
feet?

I was stopped cold by this line from the press release: "The combined
resources of the two companies create a "best-in-class" breastfeeding
business,..."

What, pray tell, is a breastfeeding business?  A business where everyone
breastfeeds?  I never cease to be repelled at how pump manufacturers avoid
depicting babies actually breastfeeding in their marketing materials, all
the while emphasizing how their particular equipment makes it possible to
breastfeed 'longer' or 'more naturally' or the like.  Having babies is a
breastfeeding business - it keeps you busy, breastfeeding.  But I don't
think that's what they meant.

Or the CEO of the bottle company who is quoted in the press release as
saying  "We want to support moms with the highest-quality breast pumps and
accessories to make it as easy as possible for moms who want to breastfeed
to do so. The addition of XXX to our family of products further expands our
ability to provide moms the widest range of options to enhance their
breastfeeding experience."

OK, so I am very demanding and hypercritical, but it raises my hackles when
a CEO refers to the people who will be parting with their hard-earned cash
in order to acquire these experience-enhancing  products as 'moms'.  I'm
willing to bet he's not their son.  He only wants to help women who want to
breastfeed.  He doesn't have a goal of making the world a better place for
all children by making breastfeeding the norm, and why should he?  He needs
to sell a whole range of products to women who choose not to breastfeed, or
to breastfeed exclusively.
I *might* also feel more sympathetic if he outlined the measures his company
plans to institute so the 'moms' who work there might have a fighting chance
to succeed at breastfeeding their own children.  Like, are they going to
have more than some token maternity leave for all employees, including the
moms who clean the floors in the factory cafeteria?  Will they consider
on-site child care when those moms do return to work after a decent
maternity leave, with their breastfeeding well established?  THAT would be
something that would fall into my idea of the wide range of options to
enhance their breastfeeding experience, and I will happily stand corrected
if someone has solid information that maternity leave and breastfeeding
breaks will be implemented throughout both organizations.  

Be honest with yourselves.  How many women do you know who would say that
what really enhanced their breastfeeding experience was the brand of feeding
bottle they let their baby drink their expressed milk in when they had to
leave the baby at six weeks of age, or the color of the carrier bag for
their personal pump, or the type of freezer containers they stored their
milk in?  How sad would THAT be if that was really what enhanced it for
them?  

Obviously when women need pumps they should have good ones, and there should
be independently carried out evaluations of all pumps available for women so
they can choose on some basis other than marketing information, just as we
want them to be able to make decisions on feeding their babies based on
facts and a system that allows breastfeeding to happen, rather than on
marketing info from any company.  I wonder what kinds of dinners for
maternity care staff the new merged company will be sponsoring as they take
their code-compliant stance on tour, and what will be the topic of the bogus
scientific lecture they put on to make it all look like professional
education.  All they are planning to do, is what we consider to be the
minimum acceptable standard for marketing of these products.  Is that really
something to swoon about?

Grumpy in Norway,
Rachel Myr
Who managed to locate a fifty year old Egnell loaner pump today for a mother
whose child is unable to feed at the breast, and she was thrilled becuase
she is now using a state of the art rental pump and finding her supply
dwindling, but every time she comes to our clinic and uses our pump, her
milk yield increases dramatically.  

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