Some great news for World Breastfeeding Week - New York City hospitals have stopped handing out formula company marketing bags! And I am also hearing, via the Reluctant Lactivist, that hospitals in Portland, Oregon have also stopped the formula 'freebies' - voluntarily!!
As someone from Massachusetts who worked hard on the Ban The Bags initiative in the Bay State - only to see then-Governor Romney put big pharma profits ahead of public health - I am thrilled about this news.
Why?
These are not freebies that are being handed out - they provide the manufacturers with up to a 1000% return on their initial investment. Formula is still provided to mothers who choose to formula feed their infants. But now health care providers are no longer put in the position of marketing products to their patients, and poor families are no longer hooked into buying expensive formula they can't really afford.
Bottom line - hospitals should market health, nothing else.
Hospital-based Marketing of Infant Formula
Ban the Bags Toolkit
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I wanted to let you know that I've linked to this post on my blog: http://www.breastfeedingsymbol.org/2007/08/01/i-love-nyc/
Thanks, Mama Bear! Your piece on this issue is great.
Post a Comment