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This editorial points to one of the methods formula and infant food companies are increasingly using as a marketing tool: association with prestigious national bodies. Last year the charity the National Childbirth Trust was torn by conflict after accepting short-term sponsorship from a UK supermarket, which sells its own brand formula. Some NCT breastfeeding volunteers argued that the sponsorship implied endorsment and compromised their ability to give - and to be seen to give - independent information to women.
In September 97 the Breastfeeding Network was launched as a home for lay breastfeeding supporters who left the NCT over this issue, and who wanted to continue to work for breastfeeding. As a new organisation, we are committed to remain independent, and not profit from the choices women make in feeding their babies. We welcome your call for "financial support for advocacy groups" such as ours, without this support, we will inevitably have our hands tied, and find it difficult to do all we otherwise could.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
01 June 1998
Mary Broadfoot
Breastfeeding Supporters and Trustees, The Breastfeeding Network
Jane Britten, Phyll Buchanan, Karen Hogg, Carolanne Lamont, Magda Sachs
Protecting health workers from conflicts of interest.
This editorial points to one of the methods formula and infant food companies are increasingly using as a marketing tool: association with prestigious national bodies. Last year the charity the National Childbirth Trust was torn by conflict after accepting short-term sponsorship from a UK supermarket, which sells its own brand formula. Some NCT breastfeeding volunteers argued that the sponsorship implied endorsment and compromised their ability to give - and to be seen to give - independent information to women.
In September 97 the Breastfeeding Network was launched as a home for lay breastfeeding supporters who left the NCT over this issue, and who wanted to continue to work for breastfeeding. As a new organisation, we are committed to remain independent, and not profit from the choices women make in feeding their babies. We welcome your call for "financial support for advocacy groups" such as ours, without this support, we will inevitably have our hands tied, and find it difficult to do all we otherwise could.
Competing interests: No competing interests