In our hospital (1500 births/year), mothers provide their own formula if they choose to artificially feed their babies.
This gets them into the shops to see the range, prices and how much this decision will cost them.

They are told at antenatal clinic that we do not provide formula, and it is only available in the neonatal nursery.

So far, I have only had one young girl not bring it in, so I asked her what she was going to feed her baby as we didn't have any. She soon found a phone number for me to call a relative to bring it up!!

Due to lack of facilities, and space, we do not ask the mothers to bring in teats and bottles, or to get their own formula, but they certainly have lots of demonstrations and are supervised in making it up. We tend to rarely have more that one bottle feeding mother/ week.

Have also heard of one private hospital in Qld who only has one sachet of formula, enough to make 240mls, which is kept in a locked cupboard.
If it is felt that it is needed, the Nursing Supervisor must be paged to bring the key, and the parents must replace it first thing the next day!!
needless to say, it is very rarely used!!

Happy hunting!
Susan in Australia

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