Comments on: Forget Formula Samples; Hospitals Give Out Breastfeeding Support Bags

By: norma

norma — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:29:29 +0000

I myself breastfeed but I do go to work with in the month or so of delivering and i think if you want to do both you should get some formula from hospital why not

By: Nikki

Nikki — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:48:00 +0000

Would anyone be able to tell me how to get some of these reusable bags, and some of the contents in them. I work for Public Health and we are trying to do a breastfeeding promotion through our WIC program and were thinking of handing out bags with useful items for our breastfeeding moms.

Thanks

By: Z

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:36:47 +0000

I live in England and because of the NHS we have a real drive (admittedly it’s driven by goverment targets) to encourage breastfeeding but it’s unfortunate the in the end both mothers the do and don’t breastfeed end up feeling persecuted.

The problem is encouraging the ideal while ensuring no one feels singled out.

For me formula is like vitamins, it’s useful and an important development in order to support those who need it. However no one can claim that if we have multivitamins we should all just use them rather then eating fruit and veg. So in the same way that saying people should eat veg because it’s good for them, isn’t intended as a shot at those people who for whatever reason take vitamins (because they can’t consume enough of the things they need from food) encouraging breastfeeding is not intended to isolate the women who can’t.

By: Liz

Liz — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:34:07 +0000

I have to agree wih Kathy. I would have loved to enjoy breastfeeding my first child, but nature would not allow it. Having a happy, FED baby was more important to me than winning a losing battle. No lactation consultant, visiting nurse, or anyone else for that matter could force this “natural” thing to happen for me. My son is a handsome, happy, intelligent 16 year-old who never suffered one minute because he wasn’t breast fed.

By: joyce

joyce — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:02:26 +0000

I wish we will have the same in our country soon!

By: Cate Nelson

Cate Nelson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:18:17 +0000

Rachel and Kathy,
I often say this in my breastfeeding blogs, but didn’t think to write it here. I supplemented with my older son, and not because I couldn’t breastfeed, but because I couldn’t pump enough for when I was at work or pump enough in my stressful work environment. Luckily, my shifts were evening shifts, so he was still getting breastmilk more than he would if it were during the day.
I’m doing better this time around.

What lactivists like myself are fighting is the idea that breastmilk can be easily substituted with formula. They’re not the same. It’s not like swapping out broccoli for kale as a side dish. Formula is lacking compared to breastmilk. The formula manufacturers have people believing otherwise, and frankly MOST people supplement for reasons like mine (or less), not for the rare case of not being able to breastfeed.

Luckily, for those who are interested, there is breastmilk donation. Rachel, this is like the modern-day wet nursing. You can even find a donor nearby to avoid shipping costs:
http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/12/donating-breastmilk/

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:37:16 +0000

Kathy, thanks for saying what I was thinking. I’m a mom whose grief over not being able to breastfeed nearly drove me into postpartum depression. I felt like I couldn’t possibly be a good mother to my son when I couldn’t even give him what every animal can give her young, when all I could offer him was second-best.

I think the easy venom towards formula can turn into easy cruelty towards moms who must formula-feed or supplement. I know no one means it that way, but that’s how it feels.

Susan, I like your metaphor — when I was pregnant I was an insulin-dependent gestational diabetic — I absolutely hated being diabetic, but I sure was grateful that insulin existed. Similarly, I absolutely hate that I can’t breastfeed, but thank god that formula exists (though I’d be even happier if we had some social structure for wet nursing — but that’s another subject).

By: karen b

karen b — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:56:14 +0000

Love to get one of these as I will be delivering in three wks but nowhere in my entire state has them.

By: Lauralee

Lauralee — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:10:33 +0000

I think it is a welcome change. Bravo!

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:32:21 +0000

Kathy should look at this in a different light. One lactation consultant gave me the idea and it really works. If you did not have diabetes, no one would EVER think of giving you free samples of insulin. It would actually be risky to take it. If you had type I diabetes, you would not feel any regrets about taking insulin — and your doctor would be empathetic while your doctor told you how to manage and compensate for your health risks. Ditto for type II diabetes. In theory, one should be able to manage through diet and exercise but it is NEVER that simple. Your doctor should be empathetic to the challenges, help you figure out how to compensate for the health risks and you would use insulin if needed if you cannot control the diabetes. In this case, neither the efforts Kathy went through to try to breastfeed would be minimized. I’m sure she worked harder than any mother who had an easy time breastfeeding. I would have made sure she valued what she did try to do. And Kathy should have been counseled through compensatory mechanisms for the fact that she could not resolve those problems. While the health risks are real and well documented these do need to be balanced against other health risks. Just as in any health condition, we can take steps to manage and minimize and balance risks in ways that enable mothers to feel competent and confident.

As for the bags, great that they’re green. I am generally against promotional samples because they cost the consumer more money. If you continue to use the product you are paying for the promotional samples. Formula feeding mothers pay an extra $700 per year for the promotional samples given out in hospitals that are often wasted. I’ve even seen parents who gave their baby a sample from the hospital that was expired by a year. It was horrible — clumps of congealed gunk. All because of the huge excess of samples given to the hospitals to the point that they can’t find storage space for it and are wasting the time of nurses to manage the products.