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From: <b class="gmail_sendername">anwar fazal</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anwarfazal2004@yahoo.com">anwarfazal2004@yahoo.com</a>></span><br>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><br>Corporate
Greed or Healthy Babies?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">By
Robert Weissman</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">April
9, 2012</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">Fact
Number One: Exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months is
best for infants and new mothers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">Fact
Number Two: Hospital giveaways of infant formula samples to new
mothers reduce the amount and length of breastfeeding.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style><b><span style="font-weight:normal">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.</span></b> 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.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b> </b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">So,
a last question: Are we going to let the formula makers get away
with dangerous marketing practices that harm babies? </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal">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: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10062" target="_blank">http://action.citizen.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10062</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"> </div>
<pre>Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen, <<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.citizen.org" target="_blank">www.citizen.org</a>>.</pre><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>