Andrea’s Weblog

Last week I saw a segment on the Today show in which they were discussing Babymoon packages. These are vacation packages for pregnant moms as a last vacation before baby is born. The host and a travel expert mentioned a lavish package at the Planters Inn in Charleston, SC complete with a bag of infant formula. This definitely got my attention because it breaks the WHO Code on Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

I quickly googled their site and found the hotel is indeed offering a “Stylish, insulated backpack complete with Nestle baby formula, baby bottle, and information about infant care, all courtesy of Nestle.”

Over the weekend I thought about how to frame a letter to the hotel management. Why should they stop giving away freebies to their guests? Is the World Health Organization going to come knocking at their door? What’s in it for them?

Monday morning I posted about it on the Lactivist forum at Motheringdotcommune, and then I went out to run errands with the girls and Finley and enjoy our 70 degree weather.

Almost immediately, my post started getting comments from others equally outraged at Nestle targeting the hotel industry. (This was a new experience for me, since I mostly lurk at motheringdotcommune.) It turns out my post on the violation was passed on to LACTNET, another forum I’m on and somebody forwarded it to yet another message board and somebody on that message board called the hotel. The person who phoned was in England, so my post crossed the Atlantic and the US in less than a few hours and people jumped into action!

The hotel manager was, not surprisingly, unaware of the ban on formula marketing and unaware that Nestle has been the target of a boycott since 1977. He has reportedly promised to check with the ethics department at their headquarters office.

Someone else contacted IBFAN (International Baby Food Action Network) a watchdog agency that tracks code violations . Their mission is to “improve the health and well being of babies and young children, their mothers and their families through the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding and optimal infant feeding practices.” IBFAN is looking into the violation as this is the first report of Nestle working with the hotel industry.

It’s so cool to see the wheels of change moving. While it may seem like no big deal to give out a few bags of formula, Nestle and other formula manufacturers continue to undermine breastfeeding as the normal way to feed a baby, putting profit above health. As UNICEF has said: “Marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are pursued: in the developing world, WHO estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute.” (quote from IBFAN site)

It infuriates me when Nestle and other formula manufacturers spread misleading and often false information and even target moms who have chosen to breastfeed. Statements like “even exclusively breastfeeding mothers need to formula feed sometimes” (quoted from MDC) are sickening! I’ll get off my soap box now but I’m so glad that I played a small part this week in the struggle for breastfeeding to be seen as the normal way to feed a baby.