Promoting breastfeeding among new mothers

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

If you look at advertisements featuring babies, chances are you’ll find at least one of the standard baby accessories in the picture: diapers, plush toys, a rattle — and who could forget the baby bottle?

“The bottle; that’s what we see as normal,” said Angela Mancini, a nutritionist at the Lac St. Louis CLSC. “We don’t trust our bodies to do the job.”

As part of World Breastfeeding Week, dozens of new mothers — and a few fathers — were at the Galleries des Sources shopping centre last Wednesday afternoon to take part in a breastfeeding clinic aimed at raising awareness for, providing information on, and reducing stigma surrounding the most natural way to feed babies.

While the Lac St. Louis and Pierrefonds CLSCs offer various workshops for new parents, the goal of last Wednesday’s event was to take breastfeeding out of a medical setting and into the public, to show it is a normal part of life.

“Sometimes, they (mothers) are worried about their lives being impacted,” Mancini said. Fears about getting strange looks in public, about having their lives constrained by a feeding schedule, about not knowing whether the baby is getting enough nutrition, or even about what their bottle-faithful relatives recommend can all make people second-guess breastfeeding, Mancini added. “We need to teach society that there is nothing wrong with breastfeeding.”

The experience of finding a space to hold the public workshop also showed there is more teaching to be done, Mancini said: most shopping centres either said no, or offered a small space tucked away from the busier areas. Galleries des Sources, she said, was one of the few that was so open to the idea. “Without them, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

For mothers who are worried about being exposed in public places, or for those who simply cannot breast feed due to medical and practical reasons, there are other ways — like breast pumps — to get the natural milk to the baby.

“There’s nothing you can buy in the supermarket that gives the same benefits as breast milk,” said Montreal Public Health consultant Ginette Belanger. While her parents opted to bottle feed her with baby formula, Belanger decided to breastfeed her children, because the health benefits for both baby and the mother were too good to pass up. Studies suggest breast milk helps protect babies from stomach and chest problems, ear infections, eczema, weaker bones later in life, and diabetes. Scientists have also made links to a reduced risk of early breast cancer in breastfeeding mothers. “All the studies are showing us how important breastfeeding is,” Belanger said.

For mothers who want to breastfeed, but are unsure of how exactly to go about things, there is help. On hand at Wednesday’s workshop were representatives from Nourri-Source, a breastfeeding support group founded in 1982.

“We’re also trying to promote bonding and skin to skin contact between the mother and baby,” said Dominique Godin, a support mother at Nourri-Source. As a volunteer, Godin is involved with providing information, and the support meetings and over-the-phone peer counseling Nourri-Source provides new moms. “We want to give women the support they need. Breastfeeding is the most natural way to feed babies.”

According to Mancini, it is recommended mothers breastfeed their babies at least until they are six months old. Ideally, breastfeeding should continue until the child is two years old. And as for those worried about being able to tell if your baby is getting enough milk, Mancini gives a few words of advice: “The baby will let you know,” she said with a laugh.

The Lac St. Louis CLSC can be contacted at 514-697-4110, and the Pierrefonds CLSC can be reached at 514-626-2572. For mo-

re information about Nourri-Source, call

514-948-5160.