New mothers duped into talking to salesmen She wrote: "So families supply their details, which can be sold on by a commercial company, which in turn is paid by the Government to supply freely available child benefit claim forms." Dr McCartney said commercial advertisers also get access to new parents through "baby bags," which contain sample products as well as flyers, given out by Bounty. She said around 2.6 million Bounty bags are given to new mothers and fathers every year, with some distributed by Bounty and others by NHS workers. Justine Roberts, CEO and co-founder of Mumsnet, said they have had complaints about Bounty's "hard sell" tactics, and branded the practice an intrusive and unnecessary stress. She said: "Mumsnet users have reported being hassled by over-zealous Bounty salespeople, with some implying that parents will only be able to claim for child benefit if they fill in Bounty's commercial forms. Other mums report being pestered by Bounty photographers only hours after giving birth. It's hard to believe that the Government actually pays a private company in support of this practice. Parenting charity NCT also criticised the practice, saying many parents do not know what they are signing up to. Chief executive Belinda Phipps said: "Within hours of giving birth, they are being asked questions - their name and address, details of life insurance - and they give them in good faith, thinking they're speaking to a hospital person In fact it's a commercial person. The NHS is condoning a sales team collecting data from mothers in order to sell their name on to commercial interests. A spokesman for Bounty told the BMJ: "Over a decade ago Bounty offered to conduct a small scale pilot which satisfied HMRC that Bounty could distribute child benefit forms directly and quickly into the hands of parents as soon as they need them." He added that a poll of 4,000 parents earlier this year found that 90% said they were "satisfied" with the packs. A HMRC spokesman said getting Bounty to deliver the forms was a cheaper alternative to posting them. They said: "We are committed to keeping our costs as low as possible. Bounty distributed 82% of all child benefit claim forms in 2012, averaging around 10p for each claim. A Department of Health spokesman said it was up to local NHS trusts to decide locally whether to allow them to be given to families and they can have a say about what goes in the packs, to make sure the content is appropriate.