Located on Upper Cape Cod, Falmouth, Ma Small 95 bed community hospital. 9 bed LDRP rooms delivering approximately 550 births per year. No newborn.

Located on Upper Cape Cod, Falmouth, Ma Small 95 bed community hospital. 9 bed LDRP rooms delivering approximately

550 births per year. No newborn nursery, exclusive rooming-in. Celebrating our 1st year anniversary of our

outpatient Lactation Clinic with over 564 lactation visits year to date.

AAP, ACOG & AAFP all recommends 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding.

Studies show that giving new mothers formula marketing bags shortens exclusive breastfeeding duration. (even when formula removed!)

Nurses giving out formula bags suggests to the parents that she endorses the product.

New tired mother’s perception of that 1st Bottle of Formula is AHHH …. a sleeping baby…must be better than breastmilk!

Worried that we not be approved for a formula budget given the fact that we had received it free for so many years.

Concern that patients would be asking for the bags.

Nurses like to give free handouts. Especially the evening shift nurses who were totally invested in giving them to the patients as a gift.

It appeared to us that there would be a great resistance.

Concern that we would hurt the formula reps feelings or income.

We did not want to be on the black list !!! PRIDE

We started hinting to the staff and the formula reps.

Two months prior to discontinuing the bag we met with the formula reps to determine our current usage and potential cost. (No one would give us a direct price!)

Due to our high Breastfeeding rate ( 86.73%) we believed that the cost would be minimal, however we did meet with the COO to get approval for a formula budget.

Educated staff not to offer the first bottle and to explain to the mother why. We have daily lactation support for patients.

We now need for a physician order to offer formula to a breastfeeding mother.

We just did it !!!!

It’s not always what you think it is. It was easier than we thought. It raised staff awareness of how bags

undermined discharge breastfeeding success.

Created more storage space! Opportunity to turn to the community for

local support information in custom bags. Administrative support is critical.