Massachusetts health officials have decided to delay the ban on freebies of infant formula being handed out to new mothers.
It follows a request by the Republican Governor Mitt Romney, who says that mothers should be given a choice to decide as to how they will feed their infants.
The Public Health Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to suspend the ban till they study the issue further. A decision will be taken by the council in May whether the ban should stay on or not.
Advocates of the ban say that the gift bags will discourage breast feeding by mothers. According to medical studies, breast-fed children are less prone to respiratory and gastrointestinal related illnesses and women who nurse have lesser chances of contracting breast and ovarian cancers.
Alison Stuebe, a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital said: “When a woman stops nursing, she unnecessarily puts herself and her baby at risk for diseases.”
Anne Merewood of Boston University School of Medicine said: “We don't feel it is a good public health policy to give them out. New mothers are a vulnerable group and this is pure marketing.”
Marisa Salcine, a spokeswoman for the International Formula Council, said that their members think that ban on gift-bags is not a good idea. She said: “We will be reiterating our position that we don't believe that a ban on hospital discharge bags will increase breast-feeding rates.”
Roomney said that a ban by the government would be an intrusion into private lives.
He said: “I'm not enthusiastic about the heavy arm of government coming in and saying: 'We think we know better than mothers, and we are going to decide for you. And allowing her to make that decision is best [done] by letting her have the formula, and if she wants to use it, fine.”
