Hi all,

I posted a while back about a friend of mine campaigning against a local
hospital signing a contract with a formula company for free formula and
whatever other perks come with the contract. This is still under
discussion with the hospital board and I wanted to get some ideas from
the Lactnet crowd on how to pursue this further. How have the hospitals
with BFHI status gotten past the buying formula dilemma? I read some of
Marsha Walker's excellent posts in the archives about approaching this
from an ethical stance and this does seem to be working. The board of
directors seems truly surprised this contract would actually be a
concern for anyone. The odd thing to me is that the whole thing is very
hush-hush, with noone who works for the hospital allowed to have any say
in what ultimately affects them as well as all the women who deliver in
the hospital. Apparently there is another hospital in the region that
buys its formula and was successful in not renewing its free formula
contract, this through consumer pressure, but noone seems willing to
divulge how this was accomplished.

So does anyone have any suggestions on how to procede from here?

Donna Hansen
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada