Doctor/hospital "Goodie Bags"

Gosh I don't remember what all was in my "goodie" bags honestly LOL I just know whatever it was was gone pretty quick but those bags I used till they fell apart LOL I think I might still have my daughter's in a box somewhere (I think she used it for her dolls after I was done with it) ... maybe LOL

Others may have great luck with the La Leche League but my two experiences with them were HORRENDOUS. Thankfully I'm very strong willed and minded and told the two women who called me, and accused me of abusing my children and then told me that I should give them up for adoption because I wasn't breast feeding, to go f*ck themselves.

People who complain about this (getting formula coupons when they breastfeed) are the kind of people who are just always looking to complain and are always looking to be insulted. Just throw out the stuff you are not going to use. It's not a personal attack. I was not offended...I realize it's just a bag o freebies the hospital is giving away to everyone. (To answer your question I have no memory of what was in that bag...I think I used none of it!)

I know what you mean. If you go to your primary care doctor, you'll get free samples of drugs but no coupons for anything holistic! And remember that the price of formula goes up because they have to underwrite the expense of giving away these samples!

I think you should write a letter to your OB saying how wonderful it was to get the breast feeding bag. Then I would write a similar letter to the old OB and say what a difference it was with your new OB! It might not make a difference, but it could possibly open up her mind. Nothing gets done if you don't make a little noise! If the breast pad companies, the bra companies, the nipple cream companies and everyone had 1/10th the budget of the formula companies, it would be a different world. And don't get me started on the formula companies pushing formula on 3rd world mothers, where clean water may be scarce and where they start diluting the formula to make it last longer. Pushing them away from BFing is one of the great scandals of the past 50 years.

A good source for BF moms is La Leche League. Lots of support.

In Canada breastfeeding is recommended by the government, and since our health care system is government run the hospitals heavily promote breastfeeding. With my first son my goodie bag contained hand knitted booties, a bib, Lansinoh, breast pads, a pacifier, some diapers and a smoke detector. I don't remember getting a goodie bag with my second child.

Full of formula and coupons, which is was really grateful for. I formula fed.

I wasn't pushed away from breastfeeding, because someone causally handed me a bag of formula. Are people really that weak? I mean, if someone chooses to breastfeed, a can of formula shouldn't matter. Unless, they were never that committed to begin with...??

I don't remember honestly. It's been 10.5 years.
I do remember that the goodie bag or its contents factoring didn't factor into my personal decision about feeding my baby at all though.

Home-birth and didn't get one. :)

My guess is that those doctors get a nice kick-back for handing out the samples, either way. Even if it's in the form of being taken out to lunch by the reps. I would have loved the samples from the BFing bag, though. Maybe the BF products rep didn't make it to your first OB's office?

I breastfed, but I loved the formula goody bag. Even though I didn't need the formula samples I made good use of the rest of the items. The diaper bag was just the right size. It was the aqua colored Peter Rabbit bag from Enfamil. I think they had changed the color to yellow and blue when I had my second. The hospital itself also had some goodies that were more nursing oriented and came in handy.

I gave the formula and coupons to a friend too. Free stuff does not offend me. Even if I can't use it, someone else can, and I like passing it along.

In exchange for the hospital providing the goodie bags as advertisement they companies often give the hospitals free samples and reduced prices on formula needed to feed babies in the hospital that need it. I did not use most of the stuff in my bag (I was told to choose between the formula one and the breast feeding one) but I passed it along to a friend who did.