At our small hospital staff meeting this am the following discussion took
place.  One of the 2 other doctors (my partners) that deliver babies ask what
the policy was about giving instruction books from the formula companies to
the mothers. The hospital staff was unsure if they could do this because we
(really I) had pushed through the policy that BF moms would not be given
formula when discharged from the hospital.

I said that we really need to check what the BFHI said about this before we
did anything.  The director of nursing (mother of two, never BF her children)
said,"They have dropped the BFHI.  We haven't heard anything from them since
we submitted our "intent to Comply back in 1992 or 1993."

My reply was, "The BFHI has not been dropped.  Despite the fact that these
guidelines from UNICEF do not have the force of law, they were meant to be
used as internal guidelines to be used with in the institution.  UNICEF still
stands behind these guidelines, the US thought that they had to do something
else with the rules so they are doing their own study of the issue."

I said that we would look at the issue and bring it back to the medical staff
next month.

LACTNETTERS are welcome to help me load up with information to "lay it on
them" next month.  Our hospital does better than some since we don't do
routine supplementation.  We TRY to keep the mom and babies together all the
time, and we try to get the babies to breast within 30 minutes of birth.  BUt
we still accept the free samples from the formula companies.

I can't seem to find my copy of the Marketing Code now either I would
appreciate it if somebody could email me privately a listing of the Marketing
Code also.

Recently  our Ross rep stopped by to show me their new BF pamphlets and their
new Discharge coolers for the moms.  To their credit, she pointed out that
the BF pamphlet only has one "add on the back cover" that says Produced by
Ross Labs.  I didn't go over the booklet with a fine tooth comb yet to check
the content but she wanted my approval for the nurses to give this out to the
moms leaving.  She also told me that there is a study pending for publication
later this year done by Dr. Dungy at the University of Iowa that shows that
mothers that were given a discharge pack with samples of formula and a milk
storage bag actually fed the infants Breastmilk for a longer time than those
that were not given the pack.  I told her that I would wait for the study to
be published.

Incidently this rep did BF her last child ( I don't know for how long) I
think partly because I educated her that BF reduces the risk of breast
cancer.  Her older sister has been diagnosed breast cancer and I think she
was convinced by the studies I shared with her that BF could lower her risk.