"Breastfeeding's number one, mom!"
Did your pediatrician or OB/GYN give you a "gift" from a formula company? Did this affect your decision to breastfeed/bottle feed?
With my first child, it did. When our son was born, my heart was set on breastfeeding and only using a bottle for pumped milk. When my milk supply dropped, I leaned on those free samples, thinking that I didn't have to pay for it so it wasn't THAT bad. This free gift cost us around $100.00 a month to buy formula until he could drink cow's milk. The few uses of formula were enough that my son rejected nursing all together. The bottle was easier and more filling. He refused to breastfeed any more.
Strides have been made in the effort to stop these marketing tactics, to lessen the pressure on mothers to feed their newborns with formula. "The American Academy of Pediatrics has passed a resolution advising pediatricians 'not to provide formula company gift bags, coupons, and industry-authored handouts to the parents of newborns and infants in office and clinic settings',"
With my second child, I've had no pressure to use formula as she will not take a bottle, at all. We are breastfeeding exclusively, and it's encouraging that my freezer is full of mommy's milk and my home is free of formula. Come to think of it, there are samples sitting somewhere on my kitchen counter... I couldn't bring myself to throw them away because purchasing it would be so expensive. It seems silly, even moms would are successfully breastfeeding may hold on to those samples "just in case." I think I'll be tossing those today.
Learn more about the ban of formula "gifts":
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