When Stieg larsson wrote "Men who did not love women" Little could I think that we would end up using that title formula on several occasions to talk about people who, because of their condition or profession, should love others who, unfortunately, do not love.
Today the newspaper El Mundo has released one of those news that you suspect is happening, but whose confirmation also hurts because we are splashed by a large number of professionals who would never do something like that. I speak of pediatricians who did not love babies (or their mothers).
They created a pediatric nutrition association
We talk about two pediatricians, a man and a woman, heads of Pediatrics Sant Joan Hospital in Alicante. He is already retired, but she is still the head of the pediatric service. In the 80s they created a partnership with the objective of researching and promoting new strategies for the nutrition of children: Nutrition, growth and metabolism unit. The mission was laudable; the pity is that it was a farce.
They began to receive funds that barely went to this association, because they had a large part of them: they traveled to cities around the world, stayed in five-star hotels, ate in expensive restaurants, bought jewelry ... The money was basically coming of artificial milk brands in order to use it in equipment and research programs, and in exchange pediatricians only had to promote their products in the Alicante hospital.
But the research programs were not carried out and the equipment was not purchased. In the almost 30 years that the association has existed, it has failed the children and the hospital, since its only function has been to serve as a cover to receive the money and as a way by which to deduct the IRPF of the courses that one of the pediatricians carried out .
The amount of money is still unknown
According to the investigation for which the two pediatricians have been charged with a crime of misappropriation, they obtained a sum of about 100,000 euros in just five years. Given that the association was created in the 80s, it is clear that the amount is much greater.
As we read in El Mundo, someone made an anonymous complaint that led to an investigation that culminated in the arrest of both pediatricians and their subsequent release with charges. Now the University of Alicante has been added to the complaint, since the association depended on them and did not know anything, and the judge has asked the Tax Agency for information regarding medical laboratories that have deposited money into the account of the group .
Pediatricians who didn't love babies
They are not the first, they are not the last, and they are not the only ones. Two have come out, but surely there are many more than, to a greater or lesser extent, receive money or other benefits in exchange for the promotion of their products. In 2014 we explain the case of the 12 Italian pediatricians arrested for receive bribes from brands in exchange for getting women to give more bottles and less breastfeeding.
We have one Spanish Association of Pediatrics which allows the entry of milk brands to its congresses, which allows its recommendation books to be financed by them, which gives its stamp for food for children loaded with sugar.
We have thousands of pediatricians and nurses who attend courses, dinners and congresses proposed by these brands. Professionals don't always return the favor, eye, but it is very unethical to say yes to those invitations.
And how did they get mothers to stop breastfeeding?
And how did they do it? There is no record, but the ethics of a person can range from simply giving the name of an artificial milk if the mother asks, to give erroneous advice so that breastfeeding fails and then recommend a bottle "for the sake of the baby."
I do not say that all pediatricians who give wrong advice do so with second intentions. There are many that they really don't know. But think badly and you will be right. Surely more than one has deliberately loaded some breastfeeding and then give a bottle of artificial milk to a mother, or various samples, and say: "the important thing is the health of your baby, your milk is not good enough, do not you Feel bad, you tried, but pay attention to me, this is the best ... you will see how from now on you will sleep better and you will all be calmer.
And so, pediatricians who put their economic interests first stop thinking about the health of babies, about what they are supposed to study and work for; that so that what the parents come for help: so that the baby has the best level of health possible.
Because one thing is for a couple to decide not to breastfeed and prefer to bottle feed their baby, but a very different one is for a couple, a mother, to breastfeed their baby and The pediatrician will load that breastfeeding just to comply with the brand that benefits him. Isn't he guilty that those babies don't get the best possible food? Is he not guilty that this baby does not have the opportunity to have the best possible health through breastfeeding that his mother had planned for him? Because we said it in his day, when you give a bottle a baby receives a substitute. A very valid substitute, but with many disadvantages even for the baby.
Pediatricians who did not love mothers
What do mothers have to do with this? Much. Breast milk is not only what a baby expects to receive at birth to continue its proper development. For the mother it is an act that causes changes in her body: it promotes a better recovery after childbirth and decreases the risk of diabetes and breast and ovarian cancer.
But that is not all. Many of the mothers who decide to breastfeed have a great disappointment when, due to a problem for which they have not found a solution (because no one has been able to help them) they have to end up giving a bottle. There are mothers who suffer for it days, weeks and months, that they feel guilty, that they feel bad for not being able to, that they have a bad time when they see another baby being breastfed.
And then there is the judgment of society, that society so absurd that it is capable of criticizing a mother for not breastfeeding and at the same time criticizing the one who does it longer than she considers normal, or for doing so in public. That society that it hurts the mother whatever the way to feed her baby.
Can you imagine what would happen if many of those mothers discovered that they had to leave the breast and go to the bottle because the pediatrician had the mission of getting babies not breastfed?
The rest of professionals
And then we are the rest of the professionals, who from time to time we have to see in the eyes of a mother, a father, the suspicion that you are talking about something because they are paying you under hand. That you explain that there are vaccines not funded by social security and think that manufacturers pay us to spread their benefits (in fact, our mission is to report their existence, not recommend or stop recommending them).
Or a mother's refusal to give a bottle that the baby does need because not only is she not gaining weight, but she is losing more and more: "I was recommended bottles, but I have not given them because breast milk is the best, and because they sure give them money for every baby they get to drink. " And you meet a baby on the verge of dehydration that you should send directly to the hospital to act as soon as possible.
I hope that this detention is a deterrent for the rest of the professionals who act like this and I hope that professional ethics will continue to be what moves them, as it moves us to the professionals who pay for our courses, our congresses, who do not give milk samples and who When we are asked about which artificial milk is better, we say: "the one you like best".
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In Babies and more | Are there artificial milk samples in your pediatrician's or nurse's office? Why breastfeeding is recommended up to two years or more
