PHM-Exch> Corporate Greed or Healthy Babies?

[Claudio Schuftan]

  From: anwar fazal <anwarfazal2004 at yahoo.com>

Corporate Greed or Healthy Babies?
By Robert Weissman
April 9, 2012

Fact Number One: Exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months is best
for infants and new mothers.
Fact Number Two: Hospital giveaways of infant formula samples to new
mothers reduce the amount and length of breastfeeding.

Given these two facts, why would hospitals serve as marketing agents for
infant formula companies by giving away free samples of infant formula? Why
do the formula companies -- Nestle, Abbott and Mead Johnson -- think they
can get away with practices that undermine public health?

The first of these two questions is more mystifying. There is unanimity
among health professionals on the key importance of breastfeeding. Many
hospitals that encourage breastfeeding by new mothers simultaneously
subvert their own health messaging by giving away formula samples, as well
as discount coupons and other formula advertising.

If hospitals started out with the simple proposition that they shouldn't be
marketing commercial products, the infant formula giveaway problem wouldn't
exist. In the absence of a commercial-free hospital culture, hospitals take
on a duty to be very self-conscious about the ways that they market or tout
commercial products. When it comes to infant formula, most are failing to
fulfill this duty.

The good news is that hospitals can be persuaded to do better. A Centers
for Disease Control study finds that in 2009, 34.9 percent of hospitals had
stopped distributing infant formula samples, up from 27.4 percent in 2007.
The change follows advocacy campaigns from groups like the Boston-based Ban
the Bags campaign and a stronger push for breastfeeding support from
national public health agencies.

Now a new initiative by Public Citizen and more than 100 health and
consumer organizations aims to up the pressure. The groups have sent
letters to 2600 hospitals urging them to end giveaways, and more advocacy
will follow. There's just no excuse for hospitals to market infant formula.

Despite recent gains, American society is not sufficiently supportive of
breastfeeding, and the everyday realities of many new mothers' lives make
exclusive breastfeeding very challenging. Giveaways of free samples
directly undercut hospital efforts to support breastfeeding and sends
exactly the wrong message to new mothers.

*The act of a hospital handing a new mom a sample of formula is the same as
the hospital telling the mom that she can't breastfeed exclusively, or that
she shouldn't breastfeed exclusively.* The choice of formula, if it is
necessary, should be made in consultation with a baby's pediatrician, not
determined by a contract with a formula company.
 One possible explanation for the persistence of hospital formula giveaways
is the power of "free." But the samples aren't really free. Not only do
they undermine a healthier means of nourishing infants -- breastfeeding --
they end up costing new parents in strictly monetary terms. Using formula
is expensive. Samples are costly even for formula-feeding parents. Mothers
who receive a particular brand in the hospital are likely to stick with it,
costing them up to $700 extra per year as against cheaper alternative
brands.
*  *
Now as to that second question -- why do the infant formula makers think
it's OK to pursue unhealthy practices? -- the answer is more
straightforward: They are looking for profits, and they'll do what they can
get away with.

This is an industry with a record of employing horribly aggressive and
deceptive marketing practices in poor countries -- where breastfeeding is
even more important than rich countries, because formula may be mixed with
contaminated water, and because the economic costs of formula can overwhelm
family budgets (or where mothers may use nutritionally inadequate amounts
of powder, because they can't afford enough). The infant formula companies
still violate the terms of the World Health Organization's formula
marketing guidelines, but abuses are less severe than they once were,
thanks to global campaigning by groups like the International Baby Food
Action Network.

The World Health Organization guidelines plainly forbid giveaways of infant
formula, but the companies have taken the view that the rules don't apply
in rich countries.

So, a last question: Are we going to let the formula makers get away with
dangerous marketing practices that harm babies?

Sign the Public Citizen petition to tell formula makers to stop using
hospitals as marketing tools, and stop endangering moms and babies with
their quest for profits:
http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10062.



Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen, <www.citizen.org>.
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