Breastfeeding Gestapo Moves to Ban Free Formula Samples from Hospitals [View all]

[Renew Deal]

When you deliver a baby in a hospital you get a nice big swag bag of supplies to take home with you. Mine contained swaddle blankets, diapers, Vaseline, a baby brush, a nasal aspirator, giant maxi pads, mesh panties, nipples, and baby formula. But the consumer advocate group Public Citizen takes exception to the formula freebies. In a letter sent out to 2600 hospitals across the country they demand that healthcare facilities "immediately discontinue the distribution of commercial infant formula manufacturer discharge bags," claiming it undermines women's success at breastfeeding. What they failed to explain is why a woman's decision regarding her own tits is anyone's fucking business but her own.

While Public Citizen says that hospitals that include the formula samples in discharge bags are complicit in unethical corporate marketing of these products and cites studies that suggest a link between the free samples and mothers who are "less likely to breastfeed exclusively and more likely to breastfeed for shorter durations," the real issue is the organization's preference for exclusive breastfeeding. They say it's "best for babies, mothers and communities," and its bias against formula is borderline illogical, referring to it as a "potentially harmful product to new moms."

The hand-wringing in the letter is a little over-the-top:

Hospital promotion of infant formula through dissemination of these discharge bags contravenes this consensus, needlessly and inexcusably harming babies and families. Moreover, formula feeding imposes a significant burden on the nation's economy. Breastfeeding saves families and the economy countless dollars.

http://jezebel.com/5900729/breastfeeding-gestapo-moves-to-ban-free-formula-samples-from-hospitals