To really dislike those Bounty packs that get forced upon us, whether we want them or not?

[electra]

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since everything is a commodity today. But for some reason I find them in such poor taste. You go for a booking appointment with a midwife, so very early on in a pregnancy and it's an opportunity for you to be bombarded with advertisements for oak cots and so on...

I feel it's not entirely appropriate that healthcare providers buy into this kind of thing and endorse it and I felt the same when I was given one after dd2 was born and I barely had the energy to mumble 'I don't want one thanks'

Oh, sorry, missed the Page 10 of 11 note. That's the 3rd time I've done that, I think I'll go and find the usability forum now.

Salvadory, I'm more inclined to your view of Bounty packs.

While a couple of times I was approached by a photographer I had no idea until I came on mn that she was probably from Bounty.

Any Bounty packs that I received in hospital I had to ask for.

Usually, I would get Emma's diary in antenatal pack. Fill in the form and go to whichever store had the packs(can't remember now if it was Boots or M/care).
When baby was around 5m filled in the form for the weaning pack and went and collected that.

I liked most of the free samples in the packs. Found some of the leaflets interesting but didn't use most of them (if any).

Maybe it's changed in the last 6years but I can't say that the Bounty packs ever caused a problem for me.

myself, i appreciated it
the coupons and freebies were useful to me as im attempting to be frugal

its unfair the way the shove it apon you though

Its the apparent deception that has happened in some cases that gets me- implying that the packs are essential or you won't get CB, and that the photos are for some 'official' security purposes, is crossing the line between marketing and exploitation.

I'm still arguing that childbirth + strong drugs + exhaustion + hormones + hard sell = wrong.

It is just so wrong.

In what other place in hospital would you be allowed to approach heavily drugged people in a fragile state and do a proper hard sell on them?

Ludicrous.

Well I think I am going to start a facebook group about this - down with evil Bounty!

Signpost here. I'll join!

I'm glad this thread is still running. I posted on Saturday when I was off to the hospital to be induced.

I thought the whole bounty thing sounded shoddy before I left and now I'm back (with my baby!) and can confirm it is indeed very shoddy.

I listened carefully to what she said to the lady in the bed next to me in the light of what busybee bounty lady said on here, and it was pretty much - oooh would you like a lovely bounty pack with some free stuff? Yes? And perhaps you'd like some lovely photos of your baby too ooh isn't he lovely, you would would you? Lovely! Now let me tell you about our 'packages'...

This oxytocin-drenched woman spent 55 quid on some photos which, amazingly, are available on the internet so the family can access them! Wow! It's like seeing into the future! And 55 quid is apparently 'really very reasonable' for a photographer who isn't a professional, taken in a blue-curtained cubicle with your stained clothing pushed hastily to one side on a smelly old cushion she keeps in her trolley. She had to choose her favourite from 3 photos... I mean she couldn't even take a few more than that? It's not like it's wasting film.

Absolutely vile.

After she left I heard the lady on the phone to her friend saying she'd just spent 50 quid she didn't have on Bounty photos.

I'd already told her to bugger off unless she had some proper bounty bars - milk and plain.

I have created a group on facebook here feel free to add anything!

Rubbish, learnt my lesson on my first pack not to fill in any personal details on the leaflets for the months of junk mail that filled my hallway (I used to send it all back "no longer at this address" works a treat!
I went into main delivery to have my waters broken and in the corner was lerking another pack ready for its new home. In the early contractions I just went through it and chucked out the junk and kept the freebies.
I'm not a fan of the properganda done by companies like pampers "buy me and save a child in the 3rd world".
I cant see why these packs have so much influence on the NHS.
Yes, also those extremely expensive and pushy photos done in the wards.£50!!! I refused and to be honest I'm not keen on key photofobs. I was not happy with the way they can have so much control in the wards especially when some new mums havent a penny left or are very vunerable....its not right to me.
Have been bombarded by telephone sales from Emmas Diary from a mobile phone company I was so annoyed and the man was extremely pushy. Why does Emmas diary pass my details to naff mobile phone companies?

I've never heard of Bounty people on the wards,I didn't know they did that. I picked mine up from Asda, because if you get them from there (rather than Boots etc) they have a £5 Asda voucher inside. I wasn't offered a pack by my midwife or any professional.

How many packs do you get? I had one when I was pregnant, and one about 6 months or so later. Loads of stuff mentioned here that weren't in them though, have I missed some, or does the stuff change?

Ironically, when I had dd3 I did not see the Bounty people for dust because I was put in a ward for fragile people (have mental health issues)! The bags seem to be given out at every available opportunity in my local hospital. Every time I went for a blood test or consultant appointment someone tried to give me one and then looked incredulous when I said no.

One other thing I noticed - for those of you who mentioned how Bounty manages to blur the lines in people's minds between health care and marketing - almost all the women I saw attending anti natal appointments carried their pregnancy notes in those horrid Bounty plastic wallets which say 'Please keep your notes in here' or something -- so their brainwashing and misinformation works!

Electra why is it ironic that you don't see the Bounty people when you were on a ward for fragile people?
Surely that's a good thing as it's keeping the Bounty woman away from what the hospital see as 'vulnerable people'. There's been a lot of talk on this forum about the vulnerability of women who have just given birth, obviously the majority of UK hospitals don't have an issue with this or they wouldn't let them on the mat wards.
However if you're on a ward for fragile people then I think it's good that you are left alone (shows that the hospital restricts access of Bounty to mat ward only maybe??).

I don't think Bounty is a health care provider, I'm under no illusions about its role as a marketing, money making company (this much was apparent from receiving their first pack), putting my paper notes in their pack does not make me brainwashed, does not make me not BF my baby and does not make me susceptible to their "misinformation".

Their attitude to BF on their forums has been discussed earlier but I don't see how their distribution of advertising leaflets is 'misinformation'. All adverts have to be approved as lawful by the advertising standards comittee, if there is misinformation in their distributed ads surely they can be prosecuted??
Bounty don't make the adverts they distribute, the companies who pay to be in the packs do.
Photo taking thing does sound dubious I will agree, congrats on your baby number 49 now what it needs is a leaflet on nappy disposal bins!

salvadory - ironic, only because I started this thread and then I never saw the person!

As an aside I would not say that I was treated in any particularly sensitive way - I have bipolar disorder and was put in a ward with other women who had mental health issues - although I was not told this - I found it out by myself. We were all treated like loons but that is a whole other thread!!

D'oh sorry Electra, I'm soooo slow this week, am blaming my pregnancy but just think my ability to understand anything ironic or witty is leaching out of my system the older I get also forgot to congratulate you too for you DD3, rude and humourless and pregnant, what a great combo!

No worries! Thanks! I just cannot believe she is 5 months old already - have no idea where the time goes...

I think you're just being paranoid electra . What makes you think for a minute that all new mothers aren't treated like loons. At least you had a very dubious reason for being treated they way you were!

LOL!

I loved the free vouchers in my bounty pack, love a good bargin.

Just had to join this thread as I started jumping up and down and screaming YES YES THANK YOU when the Emma's Diary comments came on. I reckon pregnany would be a lot less stressful without Emma and her perfectly supporting sap of a hubby.

I had terrible morning sickness with my DS and Emma's suggestion was to get my partner to bring me a cup of tea and a biscuit in the morning before he goes to work. WELL GUESS WHAT EMMA! I ain't got a partner and it's me to has to go to work!

God that felt good TY Mums!

LOL LadyT - my pregnancy was about as far removed from Emma's diary as you could get!

A Bounty of very little of actual use. What would be helpful is a free DVD with the pelvic floor exercises. You can get one from Tena ironically enough (CoreWellness). I wish someone had told me the importance of these sooner. It's not such a bloody secret in France.
I did try to proffer this advice to Bounty but they would appear to like you to send a sample of your child's DNA before you can register with them along with the date of your next proposed sexual encounter, just in case they might miss a marketing opp.

Bounty drove me nuts after my first pregnancy (I was so excited about being pregnant I was signing anything being put in front of me) but when I spent the whole of my Maternity leave being bombarded with landfills full of junk mail I phoned them and asked them and Emma's Diary to take me off their mailing lists. When I had DS2, the Bounty lady came to the ward and I took the pack but refused to fill in the accompanying card and she started arguing with me that I couldn't keep the pack and I would have to give it back to her

Zombie thread folks

I quite liked them, but I didn't get one until the boys were born and ALL the vouchers were out of date by then. I was also told by the hospital I would get one per child, then a snotty midwife only wanted to give me one - that had already been opened! I asked someone else and she just gave me another one.

I think the literature is useful, and also I never needed any more Sudocrem than the tiny little pots that come in them!

Our healthboard doesn't let bounty photo ladies, or bounty packs in the hospitals or health centres. Do healthboards etc get paid to distribute these, let camera ladies in?