I had my meeting today with my Medela rep.  I've known and trusted  
her for a long time.
We had a very frank discussion, separating out Medela's view from her  
own.
I'm not sure I have the energy to report and post here
everything we covered and I'm not sure what I have to report would be  
heard because it
seems so many are already on the anti-medela band wagon.  For now I  
will say it's not all
that it may seem on the surface. My medela rep struggled with some  
ethical issues and
states that after doing much research and speaking with those higher  
up in Medela feels
confident that she can still remain employed without compromising her  
ethics.  She asked
me to do the research too...I have not had the time yet. She also  
asked me to look at both
the Medela webpage and the Ameda web page and compare...she sees  
little difference. She
is a wonderful person who has given much to the breastfeeding  
community both locally where
she lives and people call her and come to her with problems and with  
free product to WIC offices,
LC's etc. She did state that one of Medela's new initiatives is to  
focus on the NICU because
that is where many pumps are being used and mom's really need them.   
She also stated they
have a partnership/initiative in working with WIC.  I have taken some  
of the education programs
offered to educate WIC staff and they are excellent (AND they don't  
over promote their
products). She is sorry for the ILCA thing but also gave me some  
background I wasn't aware of.
They feel the changes in their marketing materials they were  
requested to make, others were
not being held to the same bar.  One thing she said was they were  
told their bottle were too "colorful".
She reiterated the enormous cost of the research they are committed  
to and that they are
really the only ones doing it and it needs to be done.  We talked  
about how they can't always
control how their product is being marketed on all the webpages by  
other companies/organizations.
I expressed some of my concerns ie: disrespect for the LC community  
and ethical questions and
she encouraged me to write to 2 people higher up.  That they NEED to  
hear this (from ALL of us).
They aren't a bunch of money hungry mean people unwilling to bend,  
they are a company, profit
is definately a goal BUT they don't intentionally want to hurt LC's  
or breastfeeding rates or market
poorly.
We talked briefly (I had a prenatal class to teach) about their  
mission is still the same as it's
always been "get breastmilk to babies", and we talked about how the  
connect part is missing
and so important and how this generation doesn't seem to want to make  
the sacrifices to be
with their babies and feed at breast the same way other generations  
may have.....and that that
is NOT Medela's fault.  (I had this same conversation with the Hygeia  
rep, yesterday was a big
rep day for me!)
I'm sure a lot of you will have a lot to say on this.  She also  
mentioned this controversy is only
apparently taking hold in some parts of the country and that some of  
the Reps look at her with
"deer in the headlights look" because they aren't hearing any of this.

Because I've been asked to do some research I want to ask Marsha W. a  
question.
Who is NABA? Is it only you? and who defines the WHO code specifically?
I'm lead to believe it is only you and you make all the recommendations.

Ilene Fabisch, IBCLC/RLC
Clinical Director Mothers' Milk Bank of New England
Gentle Beginnings Lactation Assistance

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