A mother has started a petition calling for an end to the “bounty mutiny” as some women claim they find sales representatives on maternity wards helpful through difficult times.
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| The company pays the NHS for access to maternity wards |
Bounty sales representatives pay for access to maternity wards where they approach new mothers with “baby bags” containing samples, advertising material and HMRC child benefit forms.
They also ask for personal data, which is later sold onto third parties, and sometimes take photographs of the new mothers which they can buy.
They also ask for personal data, which is later sold onto third parties, and sometimes take photographs of the new mothers which they can buy.
The practice, for which the NHS currently receives around £2.3million a year in fees and equipment, has been attacked by many, with the parenting website Mumsnet launching a “Bounty Mutiny” campaign calling for the representatives to be banned.
John Robertson MP has tabled an early day motion, claiming the practice “exploits” vulnerable mothers, and calling for the reps to be banned, for the selling of personal information to be forbidden, and requesting that HMRC stop paying them £90,000 a year to hand out information.
But some mothers have told how the representative cheered them up at a difficult time.
Mother- of-two Jodine Boothby, 34, said that after the birth of her son Jimmy, now 2, she was finding it difficult to breast feed and was sitting in bed in tears when the rep knocked on her door.
“She chatted to me for ages and gave me a lot of really useful information. I found it really really welcome. She just understood everything I was going through and I didn’t feel anything was being pushed on me,” she said.
The bags have been handed out in hospitals since her mother was born, and while she was in hospital the only complaint she heard was from a mother who had not received one, she added.
“I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about. I took the book from the pack everywhere with me for the first year because I didn’t know anything and my mother lives quite far away,” said Mrs Boothby who has since invented a “Gummee Glove” for teething babies. “It made me worry less.”
Claire Curran has now started a counter campaign, launching a petition, which so far has 35 signatures, calling on the Government to “ignore Mumsnet over their Bounty Mutiny”.
She wrote: “They (Mumsnet) should use the power of their collective voice to bring bigger change in the NHS, not on a company that many women have positive experiences of.”
Mother-of-three Emma Day has signed the petition, and advises other mothers in her blog to say no to the photograph or not to read the advertising if they are upset by it.
She received the pack when she had her first child. When her twins were born she suffered health problems and was told she only had a 75 per cent chance of surviving after my pre-eclampsia developed into HELLP Syndrome.
“I was terrified and having the worst time of my life. No Bounty lady visited. I was very disappointed. Aside from the fact I’d have liked to chat to her, some freebies would have cheered me up a little.
“Photos of my beautiful but tiny premature twins would have cheered me up, as I couldn’t get up to take any myself.
“On Day 10 in hospital, weak and wobbly, I walked down the hall and went in search of her.”
She was given the packs, and said if she had another baby she would “welcome” the representative and the freebies.
“She chatted to me for ages and gave me a lot of really useful information. I found it really really welcome. She just understood everything I was going through and I didn’t feel anything was being pushed on me,” she said.
The bags have been handed out in hospitals since her mother was born, and while she was in hospital the only complaint she heard was from a mother who had not received one, she added.
“I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about. I took the book from the pack everywhere with me for the first year because I didn’t know anything and my mother lives quite far away,” said Mrs Boothby who has since invented a “Gummee Glove” for teething babies. “It made me worry less.”
Claire Curran has now started a counter campaign, launching a petition, which so far has 35 signatures, calling on the Government to “ignore Mumsnet over their Bounty Mutiny”.
She wrote: “They (Mumsnet) should use the power of their collective voice to bring bigger change in the NHS, not on a company that many women have positive experiences of.”
Mother-of-three Emma Day has signed the petition, and advises other mothers in her blog to say no to the photograph or not to read the advertising if they are upset by it.
She received the pack when she had her first child. When her twins were born she suffered health problems and was told she only had a 75 per cent chance of surviving after my pre-eclampsia developed into HELLP Syndrome.
“I was terrified and having the worst time of my life. No Bounty lady visited. I was very disappointed. Aside from the fact I’d have liked to chat to her, some freebies would have cheered me up a little.
“Photos of my beautiful but tiny premature twins would have cheered me up, as I couldn’t get up to take any myself.
“On Day 10 in hospital, weak and wobbly, I walked down the hall and went in search of her.”
She was given the packs, and said if she had another baby she would “welcome” the representative and the freebies.
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