Felicie's Blog

Picture this: An overweight women walks into her doctor’s office. She says that she would like to try to lose some weight through a combination of diet and exercise. Her doctor counsels her on the best way to get started and answers some of her questions. On her way out, he hands her a gift bag.

The bag contains a Deep and Delicious cake, a big bag of Doritos, and a couple of coupons for McDonald’s.

When she looks at him, a little surprised, he quickly explains, “You might need this in case you find it too hard to lose weight. Don’t feel bad about it, most of my patients eat these things regularly.”

Sound crazy? A little maybe… but the same thing happens every day for breastfeeding moms across North America. They look for breastfeeding support from the health care system and along with any support they might be given, they are inundated with free formula samples and coupons.

The contents of Similac's "Welcome" package

Breastfeeding can be hard, just like losing weight can be hard. We all know that losing weight is best, but if the support is not there then it can be next to impossible. Knowing that there is a bag of Doritos sitting in the cupboard doesn’t help. The same thing would happen to a mom having trouble with breastfeeding. Knowing that there is a can of formula waiting to be used could undermine her best efforts.

Worse still, the breastfeeding mom probably has a few people (husband, mother, mother-in-law) nagging her to just let them give the baby a bottle of that formula so she can get some rest.

Maternity wards in England are working to change this. They’ve stopped providing formula to moms. If you are determined not to breastfeed then you have to provide your own formula for your baby right from the start.

It sounds harsh and heavy handed at first, but when you think about it, it makes sense. The hospital should be the biggest pillar of support for any new mom who wants to breastfeed. Just like the doctor should have been for the woman in my story.

As Jeanne Sager writes,

“And it’s awfully tempting when you’re lying spent in a hospital bed to give in to the lure of a nurse with a bottle. No judgment: you’re tired. You’re not thinking straight. And you’re screwing yourself. Because sticking the artificial nipple in baby’s mouth from the get-go makes it HARDER to breastfeed. So that kindly nurse isn’t spelling relief for you — she’s foiling your future attempts to bring baby to breast.”

I think they should implement this policy in our province too.

Now don’t get all mad at me and start listing off all the cases where a baby might have to be fed formula in the hospital or at home. After all, the hospitals in England admit to still keeping a supply of formula in case it is needed for “clinical need”. We could do the same here.

The fact is that the breastfeeding initiation rate in NL is around 65%. That means that approximately 35% of moms in our province don’t even try to breastfeed. I’m pretty sure that all those new moms are not readily saying, “Sure, sign my baby up for increased risk of childhood cancer, obesity, and diabetes. That sounds awesome!”

It’s much more likely that they are being unfairly influenced by formula marketing in the prenatal clinics they visited and the hospital where they had the baby. One study found that women who were influenced by formula advertising were 2 to 4 times more likely to use those products to feed their babies.

It’s unfair for the health care system to undermine women in this way. After all, who can be expected to stick to a diet when doctors are handing out free candy and coupons for McDonald’s?

Would you like to see a policy like this implemented in NL hospitals?