News article

Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition Condemns Governor’s Attempt to Rescind Ban on Formula Gift Bags

February 21, 2006

The Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition today called upon the Public Health Council to override pressure from Governor Romney, and save a proposed ban on infant formula gift bags. The coalition condemns the Governor’s attempt to make the Public Health Council rescind the ban, which prevents Massachusetts hospitals from distributing infant formula gift bags to new mothers.

Melissa Bartick, MD, president of MBC says, “This is the third time Gov. Romney has tried to overrule the recommendations of his own public health agency. In this case, he caved in to industry pressure and put the interests of formula makers above the health of mothers and babies, while camouflaging it in the language of freedom of choice. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both called for an end to this distribution of industry-sponsored bags. It is unethical, and it should be stopped.”

“Multiple studies show that formula marketing tactics cause women to stop breastfeeding earlier. When a women stops nursing, she unnecessarily puts herself and her baby at risk for diseases ranging from breast cancer to ear infections,” says MBC board member Dr. Alison Stuebe of Brigham and Womens Hospital. “Hospitals should not participate in marketing schemes that hurt women and children. They should market health, and nothing else.”

Romney has tried to justify the policy change by saying that the bags save money for new families. Board member Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC says, “The formula in a gift bag contains fewer than a week’s worth of feedings and will hardly help stretch the budget of low income families.” Moreover, poor women are at the highest risk of poor health outcomes that can be prevented by breastfeeding. “Boston Medical Center, which cares for a high proportion of low income women, stopped distributing these bags almost a decade ago because they consider the practice unethical,” says Anne Merewood, MPH, IBCLC of Boston Medical Center.

Massachusetts lags behind 17 other states in the percentage of women who even try to breastfeed. Evidence-based practices that support breastfeeding are routinely ignored in our hospitals. A quarter of our birthing hospitals have given breastfed babies formula without a medical reason. One in four do not require postpartum nurses to have formal breastfeeding training. We have plenty of barriers to breastfeeding without the governor adding one more.

The Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition (MBC) is an alliance of organizations and individuals involved in maternal/child health whose purpose is to promote, protect and support breastfeeding in the Commonwealth.

Read the relevant sections of the new regulations, and DPHs memorandum about them to the Public Health Council.