Jeffrey Fouche asked about hospitals which have stopped receiving
free supplies of formula.  There has been a lot of progress on this
in Ausatralia in recent years and the most common method is for the
hospital to introduce a policy that mothers who are not breastfeeding
bring in their own formula.  Mothers are informed at time of booking
in and advised to check prices and availability in their local area.
They bring in the formula they will be using when they go home and
get individual instruction on cleaning equipment, making it up, etc.

Most hospital report that staff (some, not all) have more problems
with this policy than the mothers.  Once staff see that the
bottle-feeding mothers are getting better and more responsible care,
they usually come round.

I heard of a private hospital this week which has about 1100
deliveries per year.  They purchased all their formula at
unsubsidised prices last year - all 8 cans!  It did not make a hole
in their budget, but then a lot of breastfed babies did not get comp
feeds.

Ros Escott
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"In every work the beginning is the most important part,
especially in dealing with anything young and tender." Socrates