In a message dated 5/21/98 8:53:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Hey I'm getting really concerned about what I'm hearing from the States re
 sending mothers home with formula and, even worse, the CASE or two of
 formula arriving unsolicited on the doorstep - both of these are fantastic
 marketing ploys.
 The US is a signatory to the WHO Code - are these violations being reported.
 Surely something can be done about it.
 The other issue is one of privacy - I work in a maternity unit and we are
 forbidden to give anybody's name to anyone on pain of death.  How are these
 company's getting the names of patients.  What if the woman didn't want the
 world to know she'd had a baby, for whatever reason?
 This practice has to stop  >>


I totally agree.
How do the companies get the names of these expecting moms?
Based on my experience with my last baby born in 1996, when I signed up for a
mailing list at a nation-wide chain maternity specialty shop. The list was
supposed to be used to notify me of upcoming sales in their store but the
names of these moms are sold to companies ranging from birth announcements,
baby specialty store, disposable diaper companies, grocery stores, toy stores,
portrait studios, baby food companies and of course, my unsolicited cases of
formula. Just last week I received a sample of disposable training pants in
the mail with a coupon and letter congratulating me on my child's second
birthday!

Laura Scarborough RN and studying for the IBCLCE