(posted here with permission. You may also repost this elsewhere. Please note that Marsha needs helps, as per her reply to me, when I asked for permission to re-post and distribute.
Janice)
Hi Janice,
Please feel free to circulate my Lactnet post to your breastfeeding message boards. I would also be interested in knowing what mothers would be willing to do to help in this campaign, i.e. refuse the bags in the hospital, write a letter to the hospital CEO, return the bags to the manufacturer, contact their legislators, complain to the department of Public Health, etc. Maybe you could ask when you post my message!
Marsha Walker
Marshalact@aol.com
Here's the message from Lactnet:
As many of you already know, the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition just launched a national campaign to rid hospitals of the distribution of formula discharge bags. Anne Merewood and myself serve as co-chairs along with a national committee that is putting together countrywide strategies to eliminate this commercial barrier to breastfeeding.
We have a growing website, www.banthebags.org (http://www.banthebags.org) , where you can access the latest in
what is happening, see a history of our work in Massachusetts, and check all of the hospitals that are currently bag free. We have a listing of the bag
free hospitals and ask that if your hospital is bag free to please take a
moment to fill out the website form to report this to us.
We have mugs, buttons, and pens for sale to help defray costs of this project, as well as a Ban the Bags Toolkit available online or as a hard copy to help others interested in taking this on.
We want to share as much as possible and would appreciate any suggestions of documents or resources that you would find helpful. Anne and I launched the campaign at the ILCA conference with a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation which is available at the website for those who missed it.
We must be doing something right, as the second most frequent visitor to the BTB website was Abbott Labs (Ross Products, Similac)!!! If you have
questions or suggestions please contact us so we can make this a large concerted effort throughout the US. Mothers and babies are counting on us! Or as our motto says, "Hospitals should market health and nothing else."
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Marshalact@aol.com
Weston, MA
Janice)
Hi Janice,
Please feel free to circulate my Lactnet post to your breastfeeding message boards. I would also be interested in knowing what mothers would be willing to do to help in this campaign, i.e. refuse the bags in the hospital, write a letter to the hospital CEO, return the bags to the manufacturer, contact their legislators, complain to the department of Public Health, etc. Maybe you could ask when you post my message!
Marsha Walker
Marshalact@aol.com
Here's the message from Lactnet:
As many of you already know, the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition just launched a national campaign to rid hospitals of the distribution of formula discharge bags. Anne Merewood and myself serve as co-chairs along with a national committee that is putting together countrywide strategies to eliminate this commercial barrier to breastfeeding.
We have a growing website, www.banthebags.org (http://www.banthebags.org) , where you can access the latest in
what is happening, see a history of our work in Massachusetts, and check all of the hospitals that are currently bag free. We have a listing of the bag
free hospitals and ask that if your hospital is bag free to please take a
moment to fill out the website form to report this to us.
We have mugs, buttons, and pens for sale to help defray costs of this project, as well as a Ban the Bags Toolkit available online or as a hard copy to help others interested in taking this on.
We want to share as much as possible and would appreciate any suggestions of documents or resources that you would find helpful. Anne and I launched the campaign at the ILCA conference with a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation which is available at the website for those who missed it.
We must be doing something right, as the second most frequent visitor to the BTB website was Abbott Labs (Ross Products, Similac)!!! If you have
questions or suggestions please contact us so we can make this a large concerted effort throughout the US. Mothers and babies are counting on us! Or as our motto says, "Hospitals should market health and nothing else."
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Marshalact@aol.com
Weston, MA
