Latch On NYC...Mayor promotes Breast Feeding

Formula v breastfeeding: Should the state step in?

New York City has put forth an initiative to end free formula milk samples and make it more difficult to access formula in hospital. Will the measures promote breastfeeding or add to a culture of shame for those who use formula?

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the specifics of a new initiative called Latch On NYC, it seemed at first glance like another aggressive move by the health-focused mayor.
Bloomberg, who already made international headlines for banning the sale of giant-sized soft drinks in the city, said that as of September, the 11 city hospitals and 16 participating private hospitals would restrict access to formula milk.

For mothers who choose to breastfeed, this means treating formula similarly to medication, requiring that it be doled out only for specific reasons, and signed out and noted on the baby's chart when administered. Mothers who chose to formula feed can still do so.

Participating hospitals would also eliminate discharge bags, full of formula samples and paid for by the formula companies. Recently, Massachusetts and Rhode Island banned this practice as well.
The Latch On program is designed to promote breastfeeding. But some mothers worry that it contributes to a culture that pressures and shames women who want or need to use formula. It's part of an ongoing battle over who really has women's best interests at heart.

Deborah Kaplan, assistant commissioner of New York City's bureau of maternal, infant and reproductive health, says that setting up good nursing habits in the hospital is crucial when breastfeeding, since the first few days after birth help set the pace of milk production.
"In the body it's a supply and demand system. Nursing and pumping stimulates to make more milk," she says, noting that 73% of women in New York City hospitals reported that their babies were fed with formula during their stay. "If the baby gets some their tummy is full, they don't nurse, mother's body doesn't make enough milk and it starts a vicious cycle. Limiting access, she says, will help prevent this from happening.

Diane Spatz, a professor perinatal nursing at the University of Pennsylvania school of nursing, says the free formula bags also send the wrong message.
"If you're giving them the company bag, you're endorsing that you think those companies are a good thing," she says. "At three in the morning when mom is alone and exhausted and doesn't have anyone around to help her, she will open it up and say 'well, the hospital gave it to me'."

But Jessica Valenti, author of the upcoming book Why Have Kids, worries that these initiatives will only further stigmatise mothers who can't - or don't wish - to nurse.
"I don't care about the gift bags," she says. "But if you're talking about keeping formula under lock and key, treating it as a medicine, making women explain why they want formula and giving them a lecture is so condescending.
"It comes from an assumption that women who don't want to breastfeed don't know better."

Breastfeeding benefits
Compared to formula-fed babies, babies who breastfeed:

• Score 5.2 points higher on IQ tests (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Are 40% less likely to develop diabetes before 40 in some communities (The Lancet)
• Have more immune-boosting flora in their digestive systems (Genome Biology)
• Are half as likely to suffer from asthma symptoms (European Respiratory Journal)