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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:21:45 -0500
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What we found out from many people whose hospitals have eliminated the bags, was that it was not necessarily the contents of the bags?that persuaded administration to stop distributing them, nor was it the data that associated diminished exclusive breastfeeding and early weaning with the bags. What got their attention was that the hospital was being used by pharmaceutical companies to peddle products to vulnerable patients. It became an ethical issue of formula endorsement?and one of conflict of interest. Bag distribution has only one purpose, which is to create new customers. Some hospitals decided that they were not in the business to act as marketing reps for commercial entities. It went against their mission statement and they determined that hospital-based marketing was unethical.

Hospitals are responsible and accountable to their patients to deliver care that does not encourage poor health outcomes following discharge. You can use the handout I created at the Ban the Bags website at http://banthebags.org/?p=48#more-48?to help your CEO understand this in more detail.

Throw out the remnants of the bags that you opened. The stuff is not free. Mothers who pay inflated prices for formula pay for those bags. Every?bag that is distributed takes money out of the pockets of families to pay for the marketing machine that has painted a target on the backs of pregnant women.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA
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