Danone offers secret deals to student midwives
As Danone steps up its competition with Nestlé for the hearts and souls of health workers we have learned it is offering grants and meals to student midwives, its rep. telling them:
For me to give funding I will need each of you to sign an ethical practices form which is just for our own records to say we comply with the WHO code for the giving of funding etc and we keep it in a filing cabinet and it is strictly confidential.
This is normal practise and we ask all midwives and students to sign a form when we take them for lunch /dinner or give funding or literature out on first milks so it brings us more in-line with BFI.
BFI is the Baby Friendly Initiative, which says company reps. should not contact health workers. Information should only be passed to a designated expert member of staff who will assess information for accuracy and only communicate what is necessary.
Before I finish I wondered if you would ask the girls in you class if they fancied meeting up with me for dinner so I can tell them more about the way we work and events that will be coming up this year as they could be missing out. I will of course pay for dinner somewhere that suits everyone and just so you are aware that you can liaise and meet with me as long as it is in your own time and off trust premises.
Some of the lecturers don’t approve of seeing formula reps due to BFI but as long as you stick to the rules and just keep it to yourself your fine. It is a shame really because we are here to help educate midwives so they can give the best advice and practise to mums.
● In 2011 we exposed Danone trying to recruit midwives off-the-books to staff its ‘Careline’.
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