Thursday, 4:30 PM
Hospitals can give out gift bags with infant formula
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
In a victory for Governor Mitt Romney, maternity wards in Massachusetts can continue to hand out free gift bags stuffed with formula, the state's public health commissioner announced today.
The decision emerged five months after the state's Public Health Council voted unanimously to ban the formula gift bags, making Massachusetts the first state in the nation to adopt a prohibition on the giveaways, a staple of maternity wards for decades.
But Romney later objected to the ban and asked the Public Health Council to reverse its position, saying it deprived women of the right to decide whether they wanted to receive formula samples and coupons. In February, the council reversed the ban and ordered administrators at the state Department of Public Health to conduct a three-month review of the issue.
Today, Public Health Commissioner Paul Cote told the council that the review determined there is no pressing need for a gift-bag prohibition and that the earlier reversal of the prohibition should remain in place.
"The entire idea of coming up with and making a ban did not seem to be necessary given what we really felt was the current strength and clarity of the existing regulation," Cote said in an interview. "We felt that any regulation prohibits and interferes with the choice of a mother to make a decision to choose not to breast feed. That in and of itself is probably a little bit too heavy-handed for government from a regulatory perspective."
Hundreds of research studies have shown that children who are nursed are less likely to have earaches, stomach problems and grow up to be obese.
Members of the Public Health Council, which establishes public health policy in the state, had little comment on the review, although council member Maureen Pompeo said she thinks the decision was "a good compromise."
Romney last week completed a major overhaul of the 9-member council, removing three members who had supported the gift-bag ban. A spokesman for the governor said last week they were removed because their terms had expired, but one of the members, whose term had expired a year ago, described her removal as "political."
Supporters of the ban expressed deep disappointment today about the Department of Public Health review and the governor.
"We have a governor now who's protecting big business rather than the public health," said Marsha Walker, executive director of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy.
Walker and other advocates said they would now direct their energies toward persuading individual hospital to prohibit the giveaways. A Boston Globe review earlier this month found that an increasing number of major hospitals have stopped distributing the bags in recent months.
