No more free formula at RI Hospitals-State is first in the nation to end this practice

[The Straight Story]

No more free formula at RI Hospitals
State is first in the nation to end this practice

PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI/AP) - Rhode Island's birthing hospitals will no longer give new mothers free infant formula when they head home from the hospital.

This decision is part of efforts to encourage breastfeeding.

The state's hospitals ended the formula giveaways as of this fall. Rhode Island is the first state in the nation in which hospitals have ended this practice.

Health officials say studies link formula giveaways to decreased breastfeeding rates. Breastfeeding has been shown to be healthier for both infants and mothers.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/home/wpri-providence-no-more-free-formula-at-ri-hospitals-jmq

[LWolf]

1. I was fortunate to take home that care package

when my first son was born. The plan was to breast feed, but within hours at home I was running a fever; I'd contracted a staph infection in the hospital, was put on anti-biotics, and told not to breast feed until the anti-biotics ran their course.

So I turned to the care package, which held us over until we got to the store to stock up.

[BlueIris]

5. Yikers. Thank goodness for that care package.

And while I am totally pro-breastfeeding, I think this is a terrible way to "encourage" it.

[Cairycat]

8. So, you could manage to get antibiotics but not formula?

Seems to me it would be not too difficult to pick up formula when you were getting the meds.

[LWolf]

12. It would if you had a comfortable bank account.

Not if you were scraping by until payday because you just outfitted the place for a baby.

Edited to add: that baby WAS raised on breast milk, except for the duration of the antibiotics.

[vanlassie]

10. Actually, withholding your breastmilk from your newborn put him more at risk.

But you didn't know that. Your doctors should have. Mothers breastfeed all the time with staph infections. Ignorant doctors still tell women not to breastfeed, for any number of dumb reasons, apparently because they're not interested in looking things up. As if formula is safer. First question to ask- if my baby needed this medication, not me, would he be given it? Right there you cut out 99% of the recommendations to wean- the amount going through a mother's milk is not even a fraction of a medicinal dose.

[LWolf]

13. I didn't know that.

I was very young, and depended on doctors to tell me the right thing to do.

It was 1977.

[peacebird]

2. Nice how they phrase it - breast feeding is healthier, NOT free formula cuts into our $$$$$$

:eyes:

[Bette Noir]

3. Unless I'm mistaken, the formula manufacturers donate the formula

in the giveaway kits. It's a time-honored advertising technique, "The first one is free."

[dmallind]

4. Very true - suspect this is hassle/liability first then welfare. Direct $$ not an issue nt

[SoCalDem]

9. When my kids were little (late 70's), pediatricians had "giveaway" formula

the kind already in bottles..in a six-pack,,with nipples on the bottles. Our pediatrician even gave out bottles of Liquiprin (before we all knew about Reyes Syndrome).. They had a rather large "pantry closet", packed full of all different kinds of formula & full sized meds...and they gave them away,,

[msanthrope]

11. $$$ isn't the issue--the free formula comes directly from the companies.

When I delivered, I was given two care packages--by two separate companies. I donated both to a women's shelter.

[ecstatic]

6. That's ridiculous and heavy handed! Wow! nt

[Lilyhoney]

7. Good.

[Cairycat]

14. It should also be noted that the formula was NOT free

The buyers of formula are the ones picking up the tab for these "gift packages". The cost is added in to all purchases of formula.

Also, there is no ban on formula, only these "gifts". The formula manufacturers have fought the ban on the "gifts" because they know very well that it means less breastfeeding and more formula purchased. And the earlier a baby starts on formula, the more profit for them. Formula manufacturers know that babies who consume their product rather than breastfeeding get sick and die more often (even in developed countries), yet consider their profits more important.