All MA maternity hospitals now ban infant formula gift bags

All 49 birth facilities in the state have voluntarily eliminated the formula giveaways as of the beginning of July, making Massachusetts the second state to do so. Rhode Island hospitals ended the practice last November. Back in 2005, Massachusetts tried to end the free formula practice with a statewide ban instituted by the Public Health Council, but that decision was overturned several months later. More than a dozen studies have shown that breast-feeding mothers who received free formula samples after they left the hospital were less likely to be breast-feeding by the time their infant was one month old.