----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth Brooks" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 12:37 AM
Subject: [LACTNET] Confusion

**Hi all,

> JHL allows Lansinoh to advertise, and ILCA allows Lansinoh to have an
> exhibit booth, because they do not manufacture nor market formula, 
> bottles,
> teats or foods meant to be given to infants.

**Having deleted most of Liz's posting, I want to remain with this point.
I can understand the drift of how difficult it is to decide, with the Code 
as underlying document, whether (compliant) companies that are bought by 
other (non-compliant) companies should be 'boycotted' or not. I agree with 
Lara, though, that something goes wrong in the child-parent comparison. 
Parents don't buy their children (on average... ;o)) and once the children 
are adults (with ages differing from country to country) they may still 
either suffer or preferable benefit from their parents' influence, but they 
are on their own. They have to make their own decisions, usually pay their 
own bills and will be held responsible by the law for their own actions. For 
companies owned by other companies, that is different. Parents don't own 
their children. Sorry, Rachel, to bring him in, but Khalil Gibran has a nice 
image of parents being the bow that sends the child as an arrow into the 
world. They let go. Parent-companies want the exact opposite: they won't let 
go. They want to remain in control, which in the natural parent-child 
relationship usually leads to very bad results, as it hinders the personal 
development of the child.
That being said: in Vienna at VELB/ILCA, I liked your image, Liz, of the 
'smell test'. In situations with ethical aspects, we can use a personal 
'smell test' that is not about the exact rules, but about the atmosphere, 
about the generel impression something may cause. The Lansinoh ad surely 
doesn't pass my smell test. To me, it is in the same order as some of the 
editorials from Medela. You can say you support breastfeeding, but if you 
bring all sorts of 'cumbersome' details into the equation with your 
product... then you just *don't*. It's this constant stream of *all the 
terrible things that can happen to you when you breastfeed* that are very, 
very couterproductive. Most of these horrid events are the consequence of 
SOCIETAL INABILITY TO BREASTFEED, of valuable knowledge gone lost, of people 
not being able to surrender to 'osmosis learning', as Peter Hartmann 
explained at GOLD09. I might be developing a serious pet topic (or what is 
that nice other word... can't come up with it... not hoobyhorse, but 
something like that...), but after all that I've been reading lately, it 
seems that secure attachment or lack of it, accounts for many difficulties 
in life. Sometimes, we have to take many steps back to see that it boils 
down to that, but society not valueing caregiving labour, saying that 
looking after children (Case against bf) is not a meaningful way of spending 
years of your life, pushing women to 'work' when it is meant as 'finding a 
paid job outside the home' all has to do with that, in my opinion. Women 
saying they don't feel pushed, but 'want to work'... how come, they cannot 
enjoy being at home and seeing their children develop? Why does having a 
very well paid job do more for self-esteem than lovingly looking after your 
children and spending time with them? Why is it not easier for parents to 
share caring for their children, so that they can both develop the nurturing 
and the skillful/cognitive side of their personality? Why are bf-issues so 
often presented as 'bad fate falling down from a clear blue sky'? More often 
than not, they are iatrogenic! Are we willing to recognize that...?
And then to get back to JHL: the problem of serious engorgement or edema 
often doesn't have to arise in the first place, if hcp's know what to do 
from the first minute onwards. But if problems *do* arise, there are 
different ways of dealing with them, skilful sharing of knowledge about rps 
e.g. being one of them. That doesn't involve money or buying of gadgets; 
that involves human involvement.
I think that should be part of our lc-attitude and I think that attitude is 
brought across by the spirit of the SoP and CoE' (even if not by the 
letter). If globally united lc's don't get that, who will?
Therefore, the ad does not pass my smell test and I would have decided 
against it; the JHL-editors had to decide and decided for it and I'm 
seriously interested in how it passed theirs.

Warmly,

Marianne Vanderveen IBCLC, Netherlands

             ***********************************************

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