At 22:03 +1000 30-05-1998, Johnston wrote:
>I also wonder why breastfeeding is such a lost art in your country.  I
>have been told that many of the midwives, and the maternity nurses who
>come to the woman's house do not follow the "10 steps" type of
>breastfeeding management - prefer to settle the baby with formula so that
>the mother can "have a good rest".  Is this true?

Yes, esp. the midwifes seem to be much more focused on the mother than on
the baby. The midwifes just do not consider the baby as their work. The
maternity nurses that come over the woman's house are low educated and rely
heavily on the midwife's instructions. We only have 2 Baby Friendly
institutions. Fortunately the things seem to change lately. A lot of
institutions that organize the maternity post natal care, are reviewing
their breastfeeding rules.

>Is it something to do with the political influence of the dairy industry
>in your country?

It is hard to say how it would be if we did not have these 2 very present
formula producers. But I *think* it would have made much difference. You
can see them *everywhere*. They follow the same strategy as Nestle: they
promote their general name so that they can make ads without addressing
their formula directly. (since a a few years direct promotion of the
formula for baby's under 6 months is prohibited by law). Every pharmacist,
every hospital, every magazine, almost all midwifes practices, you can see
their ads everywhere.

Fortunately the awareness of the negative effects of these ads, is
increasing. And since the new law came, the direct promotion seem to be
less present. The indirect promotion though, is growing, eg the
hypoallergenic formula's are heavily promoted nowadays, esp among family
practitioners and docters from the baby check up centers.

Annelies Bon  http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/abon/bfbronnen.html
breastfeeding counsellor of the Dutch bf org "Borstvoeding Natuurlijk"
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