Is 'Baby-Friendly' Actually 'Mommy-Friendly?' The Baby-Friendly Initiative and Effect on Patient Satisfaction [11O]

Ebinger, Jessica; Castleberry, Lauren; Cai, Bo Wen

doi:10.1097/01.aog.0000514760.55963.a5

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…[23][24][25][26] Additionally, one survey of mothers in a Baby-Friendly hospital (a hospital conforming with practices recommended by the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global program to encourage breastfeeding and refrain from promoting formula 27 ) found that 26% of formula-feeding mothers felt shamed for the decision to formula feed and 35.7% felt not adequately informed about formula feeding. 28 In a qualitative study, nonbreastfeeding women reported that probreastfeeding messages from health professionals could lead them to feel that not breastfeeding makes them a "bad mother," one who was "denying" or "depriving" her child. As one explained, "breastfeeding […] is pushed down your throat and out of guilt you are made to feel if you don't do it, you are doing your child a mis-justice."…”

Section: The Case For Maintaining Formula Giveawaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Infant Formula Giveaways Undermine or Support Women’s Choices?

2018

AMA Journal of Ethics

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Eliminating formula giveaways ("banning the bag") has been embraced as a way to reduce the influence of formula marketing in hospitals and to increase breastfeeding rates among new mothers, but the policy raises ethical concerns in the mind of some, notably because it denies a useful benefit to mothers who have trouble affording formula. Hospital policies to promote breastfeeding, including banning the bag, should be sensitive to the economic and other costs associated with breastfeeding and should be consciously designed to make breastfeeding easier and not just to make formula feeding more difficult. We recommend that hospitals evaluate the negative impacts of banning the bag on their patient population in order to ensure that families are not being negatively affected. CaseB General Hospital has been serving its community for more than 100 years. While its patient population has changed substantially over the years to one that is more demographically diverse, the hospital is still relied upon to provide a full range of health care services despite the fact that it serves mostly patients who are poor, underinsured, or undocumented. To patients who are new mothers, B General Hospital has been distributing infant formula discharge bags for many years, and, from all accounts, this service is highly valued among community members and widely regarded as not only successful but essential. Dr X is a family physician who just started at B General Hospital 9 months ago. She saw it as a place where she could deliver good prenatal and postnatal care to a vulnerable and underserved patient population. With that in mind, she raises a concern at the next department meeting: "Given the widely documented benefits of breastfeeding, I don't think we should continue to distribute infant formula discharge bags. Continuing to distribute the formulas primarily serves the needs of the breastmilk substitute companies rather than our patients."Another physician disagrees, emphasizing, "The patients in this community appreciate and rely upon getting the infant formula. We still encourage breastfeeding, but our

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Section: The Case For Maintaining Formula Giveawaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Infant Formula Giveaways Undermine or Support Women’s Choices?

2018

AMA Journal of Ethics

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Human microbiome and nutrition

Talampas-Abundo,

Abundo,

Gururagavendiran

et al. 2025

Human Microbiome Drug Targets

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Understanding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: A Multidisciplinary Analysis

Preston-Roedder¹,

Fagen²,

Martucci³

et al. 2019

IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethic

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In the United States, roughly one in four births occurs in a certified Baby-Friendly hospital. This paper offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), including empirical, normative, and historical perspectives. Our analysis is novel in tracing how medical practices of “quality improvement,” which have received little attention in breastfeeding literature, may have shaped the BFHI. Ultimately, we demonstrate that a rich understanding of the BFHI can be obtained by tracing how norms of gender/motherhood interact with, and are supplemented by, other normative, historical, and institutional realities. We conclude with suggestions for practical revisions to the BFHI.

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Is 'Baby-Friendly' Actually 'Mommy-Friendly?' The Baby-Friendly Initiative and Effect on Patient Satisfaction [11O]

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Do Infant Formula Giveaways Undermine or Support Women’s Choices?

Do Infant Formula Giveaways Undermine or Support Women’s Choices?

Human microbiome and nutrition

Understanding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: A Multidisciplinary Analysis

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