No one ever said that formula companies weren't smart.
The International Formula Council launched a website called Moms Feeding Freedom recently. It has a blog, discussion board, and a petition to sign. On the surface it looks like a mom-inspired site, and it looks supportive of breastfeeding.
But in reality it's a site devoted to countering the effort to stop hospitals from giving out those free formula diaper bags as you leave the hospital. That campaign is known to some as "Ban the Bags."
I do have to recognize the site sponsors for being honest about who is behind the site - formula companies, which are owned by big pharmaceutical companies. But that's that's about all I find good about this site.
If you've read an earlier post I wrote about it, you know that I feel strongly about this. From my perspective, this is what it comes down to: Hospitals should be marketing health.
Here's what I think is going on: The formula companies are trying to shift the debate away from the question of marketing - specifically, the ethics of marketing formula on maternity wards - toward the question of "feeding freedom." The companies are trying to spread the message that moms' choice of how they feed their babies is being threatened.
For example, the sites try to rename the Ban the Bags effort "Ban the Bottle." As if not promoting their products = taking away your right to formula feed your baby. Classic bait and switch.
So, let's review the basics about feeding choices: Some women choose to breastfeed, some women choose to formula feed, and some women choose to do both. Feeding choices are exactly that: choices. The responsibility of health care workers is to provide evidence-based information about feeding options, promote healthy choices, and then support women's choices, whatever they are.
Now to the questions that the companies don't want you to think about: Should formula companies have the right to market their products to us right after we give birth, especially when those bags have been shown to reduce exclusive breastfeeding rates? Should formula companies be allowed to enlist hospitals, nurses, and doctors in an effort to promote their products?
No one is trying to take choice away from families. This is about formula companies trying to preserve their ability to market their products to moms on maternity wards, pure and simple. If you're not convinced that this is the central issue, note that Moms Feeding Freedom urges support for a bill in Massachusetts which would prevent the Public Health Council from banning the formula bags.
You may have heard these companies' claims that these bags are no big deal - they don't dissuade women from breastfeeding, and they're not an important marketing tool. But if they're not effective at promoting their products, why are they fighting so hard to keep distributing them?
The timing of this tactic is interesting, too. Hospitals around the country, including all NYC public hospitals (thank you, Mayor Bloomberg) are giving the bags the boot. Doctors, nurses, hospitals, and moms are getting tired of increasing corporate influence in medicine, and the companies know it.
Yes, these companies are smart, but I think that moms are smarter.
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