Triangle birthing centers abandon infant formula gifts

CHAPEL HILL -- Two Triangle health care facilities have received awards for not giving new mothers gift bags from infant formula companies.

UNC Health Care stopped distributing the bags in late June. The Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill never gave away the bags.

The Golden Bow Awards are from the nonprofit N.C. Breast-feeding Coalition, a group of lactation consultants, nurses and other women's health professionals.

Coalition members started the campaign, a version of a national effort to ban the bags, in February. Four other hospitals in North Carolina received the award earlier this year.

Studies show that the free bags make it easier for new moms to stop breast-feeding.

Emily Taylor of the the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said mothers perceive the free bags and formula as an endorsement of a particular brand from the hospital.

And, she said "they are much more likely to buy that particular brand of formula."

In exchange for giving away the bags, the formula companies typically give the hospitals free formula to use for bottle-fed babies.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 66 percent of new mothers in North Carolina start breast-feeding, but, after six months, only 9.5 percent of them are exclusively nursing their babies. The rest are supplementing with formula and food or have given up entirely.

Even formula companies say that breast-feeding is best. Both babies and women who breast-feed experience long-term health benefits from the practice, including lower risks of some kinds of cancers, studies show.

Studies show that infants who are not breast-fed have higher health care costs. The federal government found in 2001 that the United States could save $3.6 billion a year in health care costs if breast-feeding rates rose.

Mary Rose Tully, director of lactation services at UNC, said new moms still get free gifts for delivering at the hospital -- diaper bags with the UNC logo on it, filled with a burp cloth and DVD about newborn care.

The hospital still receives free formula from two companies, but is working to no longer accept the free goods in the next fiscal year.

Marisa Salcines, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based International Formula Council, said studies are mixed on whether the free bags have any impact on how long a woman breast-feeds.

She said most women have made up their minds before they deliver and that the bags just offer more information about feeding options for newborns.

"We should trust moms to make the best decision for themselves and their babies," she said.