OB "Freebies"

Also giving out formula is a good reason for a mom to give up breastfeeding. The first few weeks are rough and with a can of formula sitting on the counter that a new breastfeeding mom just brought home....that formula is starting to look really good at 3am when the mom is having a hard time getting a 3 day old baby latched on.

How is giving formula to a mom who has decided to bottlefeed unethical and brainwashing?

I never advocated giving formula to a breastfeeding mom.

I just checked with our next door neighbor who had a baby six weeks ago. She's breastfeeding BTW. She received a diaper bag that looks a lot like my barrel shaped gym bag and it had the hospital's name engraved. Inside the bag were: 4 breast pads, milk storage bags, a manual pump, onesie with the hospital name, onesie celebrating an historic event that took place here this year, a cap, a spoon, hand knit (by a volunteer)
booties, diaper rash cream, baby care sample-sized tubes (lotion, baby bath, oil, etc.),
pizza coupon, written instructions as a backup to what they learned in prenatal classes on how to do infant CPR, baby magazine, nipple cream, a baby nail clipper, baby hair brush, and suction bulb (is that what you call the thingie you suction a baby's nose out with?) The hospital auxillary provided the bags.

Tippy toeing from the topic a bit,please please please don't form a knee jerk opinion about all formula feeding mamas. I absolutely must take several meds that you can't breast feed and take. Other meds are not possible for 3 of them. Ten years ago, when
our last baby was born quite early, and he was struggling in the NICU, one nurse who was a staunch advocate of breast feeding at ALL costs, made me feel terrible. She refused to acknowledge that there was a documented medical reason that I would hurt the baby if I were to nurse him and kept telling me that I could have if I had wanted to.

Sorry to hijack but I had to comment!

Kathy
sharpeimom

Kathy....please don't think I'm downing all formula feeding moms. YOU have a medical reason....you obviously can't breastfeed due to meds and donor milk is expensive so I can understand why most moms don't go that route. I'm talking about the average mom that chooses to formula feed for selfish reasons. However....this topic isn't really about breastfeeding vs formula feeding, that's a whole other discussion, lol. My beef is with formula companies shoving formula in the face of a new mom starting as soon as the kid pops out....and hospitals just go along with it by giving out the bags. It's sad and no wonder why we have such a pitiful breastfeeding rate in this country.

Sorry to stray away from the breast/bottle feeding discussion, but a sort-of OB freebie that the hospital that I worked in offered was a free massage from a licensed massage therapist to all of our postpartum moms before discharge.

Now THAT is a wonderful idea. Only problem is that I would be so jealous.