There are so many delicious angles from which to look at a booklet like
Abbott's.  I'm sure others can add to these:

Why did they print it?  Those books are expensive.  Abbott's goals are to
reduce breastfeeding overall and to outsell the other formula companies in
the process.  Their marketing department has gobs of millions of dollars to
spend on determining what will and won't support those goals.  Even if we
can't always follow their logic, we can be absolutely positively sure it's
always there.

The name Abbott is on it.  Why would it be there?  Why not just say it's
from the AAP?  Because no company would spend that kind of money and not put
their name on it.  Names sell products.  Mothers don't know the name Abbott?
I'll bet that simple, elegant logo is on the pamphlet, just as it is on the
cans.  

Even if the content of the book were impeccable, they've bought another big
chunk of the AAP by publishing it for them.  Goodness knows, the AAP doesn't
need any more allegiance to the formula industry than it already has.

The content almost certainly *isn't* impeccable.  Does it give solutions for
lots of problems?  The message is that mothers are going to have lots of
problems.  Does it have the most recent information on, say, positioning?
Or is it the same old outmoded but still "mainstream" messages on positions
and holds, with the same old perfectly-proportioned women?  We tend to say,
"well, it's not perfect but it's not too bad," but they have the money to
make it way better than "not too bad," and they know how to slide mediocre
and therefore harmful material right past us.  

One example of the harm books like this does is their reassurance that
breastmilk and breastfeeding are "superior" (as opposed to normal) and their
failure to cite any of the more dire risks of formula-feeding.  The Surgeon
General's Call to Action has a splendid little table with a few of them on
page 2:
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calls/breastfeeding/calltoactiontosupp
ortbreastfeeding.pdf   

Would your facility hand out the book if it had "RJ Reynolds Tobacco
Company" or "Joe's Bar and Grill" where "Abbott" is?  Why not?  Same thing
for the Abbott connection.  Having the hospital officially endorse the
company (because that's what they'd be doing) is huge for the company.
Having it officially endorse *any* company is debasing to the hospital.

If your own more current handouts aren't as glitzy, which ones do you think
the mothers will turn to, especially since the book has AAP endorsement?

There's no connection between the "benefit" of the book and the "harm" of
handing out pacifiers.  Or rather, there *is*, and that's part of the point.
Neither action supports long-term health for either the baby or the mother.
One is just easier to spot than the other.  Both reflect badly on the
hospital's desire to support normal health.

And there's that line from an old formula company sales manual:  "Never
underestimate the role of nurses. If they are sold and serviced properly,
they can be strong allies. A nurse who supports Ross is like another
salesman." 

We could say the same of the AAP.

There's plenty of research on the importance of gifts as a marketing tool.
Give a hospital/nurse/patient/person on the street a gift - a pen, a
notepad, a doughnut, a booklet on breastfeeding, any small token at all -
and you've bought a sense of obligation that they may not even know they
feel.  But they'll act on it.  It's a foot in the door.  The foot can so
easily become a whole lot more.  

We've been beaten on by the formula industry so continuously for so long
that we don't even notice the bruises anymore.  

It's simple enough to find truly excellent materials out there.  Funny, most
of them aren't free...

Sometimes someone outside the fray sees the problem immediately: A nurse
friend years ago approached the head of her hospital with trembling knees to
broach the subject of formula give-aways.  His response?  "We're giving away
this stuff?  We can't be doing that!  It's not ethical!"  

We can't be doing that.  It's not ethical.  

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA

 


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