NYC hospitals ban formula and bottles

This isn't about taking choice away from women, or letting babies starve. This is about marketing, and a decision to limit the marketing allowed inside NYC hospitals. By hospitals allowing marketing material to be on the walls or passed out to people it is like they are endorsing that product. Apparently NYC hospitals decided that they would rather endorse breastfeeding and not formula-feeding. I think it is a wise choice and obviously one with the best intrest of mother and child in mind. I don't see how anyone can find that offensive.

Yes, formula has it's use and there are cases where a baby has to receive it. Thank god we have it because it has fed babies that couldn't get their mother's milk - BUT it doesn't need to be marketed as an aternative to breastmilk because it isn't an alternative but a last resort.

 

So who gets to decide these things for us? Circumcision has been shown to have health benifits so have vacinations. What are your positions there? Do they have the right to dictate whats good for a child or is that the parents roll in your opinion?

 

Look, you get to decide things for your child. Just don't call it a PERSONAL decision when it can't be by definition. Personal decisions only effect yourself... these decisions don't.

The fact that breastfeeding is best isn't a personal opinion, although I personally believe in it. Its a well documented fact. I am trying to do what is best for MY child, so I breastfeed him. As parents it is our job to do what we believe is best for our childen...and this are what is best for my child. It just so happens that medical science backs up my belief.

As its been said many, many times by this point.. no one is saying these women CAN'T formula feed, they are just removing the advertising and the free samples. They are attepting to get more mothers to breastfeed, not chaining the mothers who formula feed in the halls. They are just trying to get more modern women, who consider breastfeeding to be an inconvienince, to give it a shot before reaching for the formula can.

And for the record, not that this has ANYTHING to do with breastfeeding, I am for vacinations and against circumcision, at least when it comes to my child.

 

You're implying that formula has heath benifits over breastfeeding. It doesn't/ But...
This hospital is not dictating whether or not a woman will breastfeed her child, what they are doing is taking a positive step toward educating mother's about it. They've woken up and realized that, dispite being a place that encourages healthy living, that they were promoting something that isn't as healthy for children as breastmilk is.
This is not about taking away choice, it's about trying to encourage the most nutritional thing for our children. There are sooooo many women out there who have no idea about breastfeeding. I just finished my biology course today, and a good portion of it was spent talking about lactation. I go to an adult college here, and do you know how many women said "ewww" when we talked about it? I was actually floored. One girl outright said that it was disgusting, and another said she'll do it for a month, but then will stop cuz she "don't want no kid making her boobs sag and make her pay even more money for a breast lift."
I'm not kidding. This is the attitude a good portion of our society's women have about breastfeeding, which explains why the hospital only has a 1/4 rate for mother's who breastfeed their children.
I breastfed my daughter for a few weeks and went through pure hell due to having no support or encouragement from the health professionals around here, and no diagnosis for what was happening with me and my daughter. I eventually switched to formula against my best hopes and wishes, so this is a mother who fed fer daughter formula talking. I was never given free samples, but the hospital did repeatedly give my daughter formula without even telling me. I would have prefered a hospital who only gave it when it was needed. That's what I'm doing this time. I found a hospital that is 100% breastfeeding, natural birth, etc, and it's all midwives. Forumla is not even thought of unless there is an emergency.

 

Obviously it's the parents' role. No one is saying they CAN'T formula feed. NO ONE. They are just removing the formula companies marketing from the hospital. Because that's all the free samples are-marketing. To get more customers which = less breastfeeding mothers. Surely similac/nestle doesn't give two shits about what's best for the mother or the baby. They just want more $$$...

 

I never implyed that formula is better then breastmilk. Didn't say that at all. I said it is a parents right to make decisions for their family. If a parent decides to formula feed, I don't see the problem with letting a company offer free samples. I don't think people are that easily swayed by marketing. The breastfeeding decision will be made at home long before going to a hospital. I am just saying that just because you personally don't agree with something you shouldn't push for it to be banned. People/families making their own decisions is the way it should be. I am personally all for vacinations, the health benefits have been proven, at least statisically in the population. However, I would never want all families to be forced into this decision without weighing it themselves. I find the trend to support banning everything a certain group of people don't believe in to be scary. If you don't agree with something, educate others and force your opinion but don't support the bans. It will take away the decisions you want to make for yourselves eventually.

 

The breastfeeding decision may be made before the hospital, but that means little when you have an exhausted mom, crying baby, visitors in the room at all hours, and a sample of formula sitting on the counter enticing you away from your resolve. It's easy to think "Well, I'm so tired. Just one bottle probably won't hurt." when in reality that one bottle of formula is usually the beginning to the end of a strong breastfeeding relationship - and the forumla companies are well aware of this.

Once again formula is not being banned. The marketing just isn't going to be allowed in NYC hospitals. Formula is still going to be available to mothers who do not want to or cannot breastfeed. No choice is being taken away an no one is being forced to do anything they don't want to. You're just not going to have an enfamil poster in your room, that's all.

If a person is so inclined I'm sure the hospital will let them bring their own enfamil poster from home to hang on the wall while they recover from childbirth.

 

This decision does not effect a woman's right to choose to bottlefeed. A woman can ask for a bottle of formula and it WILL be given to her. But they are limiting the marketing of formula, and pushing a bit of breast-feeding "marketing". In a culture where the biological norm is the social taboo, this doesn't even begin to even the playing field.

And another thing. The whole media controversy created by this decision, if you watch the commercials during the shows where this is debated, a majority of the commercials are for products made by the mother-companies of formula. Fishy? Yeah. Biased? Hell yeah.

No one is saying you can't bottlefeed in NYC. They're just trying to get more moms to see that it is better. Period.

 

Another victory for censorship in America. Yay!

People only ban things when they're too lazy to educate people about them

 

People who insist that it is banning are just too lazy to:

a: read the freaking article linked in the first post

b: read the posts in this thread

 

So, do you think it's wrong that some schools have banned coca cola advertisements and vending machines??

 

Don't worry all, the Government will be more then happy to dictate how to be happy, healthy little citizens for you. It sounds like some of you trust someone else to make decisions for you because you are weak or you think others are too weak to make their own decisions. Its a damn shame how far we have fallen and how many people support this kind of crap, all in the name of our own good being.

 

Lets take at look at one of the sentences in the article:

Sounds like I can read just fine.

Heres another gem right from the top:

Won't it be nice when these Government folks protect us from all that is wrong in the world. We won't have to think for ourselves at all.

 

you are totally taking these quotes out of context. They are banning the FREE SAMPLES! In no way are they saying, "you can't formula feed your kid."
When I had my daughter, I wasn't given any (thank god), but I did get a bunch of sample stuff like diapers, wipes, lotions, etc. Had they thrown fomula in there, they just would have made a hard battle worse. I had to fight with myself to not beg my husband to go to the grocery store to buy the formula because I was GOING THROUGH HELL! Had that sample been sitting there, I probably would have used it.
The government is not controlling anyone here. For petes sake, they're finally doing something that SUPPORTS the most nurtitional and healthy thing for our children. GOD FORBID! It's about time they broke away from the corporatism that has pushed so many mothers to just grab that free sample when they are going through hell.
In Canada, we have none of this advertising crap in the hospitals and are not given the free samples, and if you look at the rates, canada has a higher percentage of women who breastfeed (88% as opposed to about 75%). Just have a look around the web and see for yourself.

 

Does anyone consider that the reason why the percentages in the US are lower for breast feeding than bottle feeding is because less women stay at home. I have heard that it is really heard to breast feed while you are trying to work a full time job. Lots of accidents happen and rushing home for lunch breaks to feed and pump so you can finish the day at work with out leaking. I really don't think banning free samples is going to make any kind of difference. Now the women that might need that little but of free help aren't going to get it.

 

breast pumps that are on the market right now are amazing. I use one, and work full time. Its portable, and I pump on my lunch break and coffee break. When I was still leaking I used cloth pads.

While breastfeeding while working does require extra planning and a tad bit more work its worth it. Its not REALLY hard to breastfeed while working. It is REALLY easy to latch onto it as an excuse though.

 

The experience is different for every woman. Don't generalize and look down on people for the choices they make that just plane isn't fair. Just because a woman doesn't make the same choice to breast feed as you doesn't mean she is a bad mother and it also doesn't mean she is making excuses about not breast feeding.

 

There are a lot of things wrong with this way of thinking.

If choosing not to breastfeed only detrimentally effected the mother, for instance by not reducing her risk of breast cancer the way breastfeeding would have, then it's one thing. Not choosing to breastfeed is taking away a baby's birthright. Breastfeeding should not be a choice, it should be expected of you as a parent. I may be pretty radical for saying that, but I don't apologize for it either as someone needs to say it.

If all mothers breastfeed their babies whom could, then the ones who wanted to breastfeed but couldn't, can formula feed without shame.

"Formula feeding is the longest lasting uncontrolled experiment lacking informed consent in the history of medicine."
-- Frank Oski, M.D., retired editor, Journal of Pediatrics


"It has been recently estimated that 3,564 of the world's children under 5 years of age die each day (1,301,000 each year*) from causes that are preventable by optimal breastfeeding. In addition, for every child who dies, hundreds of others are sick and miserable from illnesses preventable with optimal breastfeeding. These children are the world's future. Much is already known about how to achieve optimal breastfeeding and the time to act on this knowledge is NOW! Not to do so is inexcusable."

Jones, G, et al. Babies are born to be breastfed. It's too important not to! Lancet, 05, July, 2003.

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“Women should not feel guilty if they are unable to breastfeed, but they should feel guilty if they are unwilling to do so, and they should be intellectually honest enough to know the difference.”

 

My daughter gave birth in a hospital that loaded her down with free samples. I firmly believe that it was those free samples that lead to the end of her breastfeeding experience. The nurse, who was supposed to be a lactation consultant, began pushing formula on the baby within 1 hour of her birth. She used sneaky little techniques to convince my daughter that it would be alright. "We'll use a dropper, not a bottle. She just needs a bit of nourishment to bring her blood sugar levels up." My daughter was having trouble getting the baby to latch on so she gave in to the pressure. She thought that if her baby didn't have nourishment immediately she would die because that's what the nurse kept implying. The they sent all those samples home with her. So when she was still having trouble getting a good latch at 3:00am, she fed the baby a bottle. And the next day another bottle. And soon it was a bottle every day just to tide her over. Within three days the baby wouldn't take the breast without a nipple shield. Within two weeks, she was on formula full time. My daughter's milk had dried up completely. She took every herbal and several prescription drugs to try to relactate. She pumped 10 times a day. When she was getting 1/4 ounce of milk after a full day of pumping she gave up. My personal belief is that if she had not given in to that first bit of formula right after the baby was born and if she had not had those free samples sitting there when she got frustrated in the middle of the night, she might have made it. Now she deals with a baby who is throwing up all the time because she just can't take the formula, no matter what kind they give her.

I saw kept the advertizing out of the hospital. Let moms truely have a choice in the matter and not be overwhelmed by the ads.

Kathi

 

WOW.... thanks for the personal insult. There is nothing wrong with having an open mind on not judging other without knowing all the details. Get over yourself.