Promoting the benefits
Calendar will showcase local women feeding babies
Lindsay Corbin’s line between her paid employment and her volunteer work in the community blurs when it comes to breastfeeding.
She works in health care but she volunteers with the local La Leche League and is also chair of the Pictou County Baby Friendly Network, which is currently seeking photos of nursing mothers for a fundraising calendar.
“We’re trying to raise awareness that breastfeeding is healthy and normal and should be allowed to happen everywhere. We’re aiming to get as much diversity as possible into our calendar,” she said, adding it is a small fundraiser designed to cover operating costs.
If you are a nursing mother or have photos of when you nursed your children, the network is interested in considering them.
“We’ll be doing our selection based on photo quality and diversity, but we’ll include as many photos as possible in a collage that will be part of the calendar.”
Corbin was a breast-fed baby and her mother was active in the La Leche League so she was raised with a high level of awareness and positive feelings toward breastfeeding. Both her children, Nikala, 7, and Gabriel, 4, were breastfed.
“In my personal circle, women feel quite empowered around breastfeeding and they are comfortable to feed anywhere but it is not like that for everyone.”
When she studied nutrition at St. Francis Xavier University, Corbin took a course in maternal and pediatric nutrition.
“I knew if I had the option, it is a field I would love to work in.”
Baby Friendly Network is a joint initiative between UNICEF and the World Health Organization and it supports the right of women to choose how to feed their children, Corbin explained. She adds women who bottle feed are unlikely to get unwelcome comments from strangers, friends and even family members.
“For breastfeeding women, that still happens and we have to change that. I definitely feel we’ve made progress in the 12 years I’ve been involved with this issue but it is something we need to keep working on in North America, in Nova Scotia and in Pictou County.”
She pointed out that as a result of an earlier Baby Friendly Network project, some local businesses display decals indicating mothers are welcome to feed their babies on the premises. Another campaign saw the group erect life-size cutouts of nursing mothers in businesses and public locations.
“We wanted people to look at them and appreciate that nursing is a healthy and it is a practice that benefits from societal support. We say it takes a village to raise a child and one of the first ways we can help is in making breastfeeding mothers comfortable.”
Sometimes mothers still need to be convinced breastfeeding is something they can accomplish, she acknowledged.
“We know modeling is really important, often more helpful than reading about breastfeeding. With the introduction and heavy promotion of infant formula, particularly in some health care institutions, we lost a generation or more of mothers who might have nursed. As a result, we have families where there is no history of nursing so we don’t have mothers passing down their knowledge of that part of parenting.”
Connecting mothers who will benefit with the help that is available is always a challenge, she added, noting hospitals offer support and direction.
“Hospitals and public health are sources of support for new mothers and the health centres in the schools can be a source of support for girls who may want to breastfeed. The La Leche League has been around a long time, there are family resource centres and our calendar will give us a better level of visibility.”
Nursing does not come easily to every mother and Corbin hopes more women will be comfortable seeking help when they need it.
“We have people who want to help and who, in most cases, can help so it is often just a case of making one connection that can lift the strain and offer encouragement and practical help.”
Like Corbin, Shannon MacDonald, owner of King of Cups coffee shop on Foord Street, Stellarton, is a leader with La Leche League and is active in the Baby Friendly Network.
“I think it is so important to normalize breastfeeding in our community and I’m all for every effort to do that,” she said, adding she breastfed sons Findlay, 8, and Caislin, 6, and is submitting a photo for the calendar.
She wants every woman who wants to breastfeed to be able to do some comfortably.
World Breastfeeding Week in Canada falls in October, the 41st week of the year which represents the first week after a 40 week pregnancy and that is when the calendars will go on sale.
“Everything is coming together for the calendar so we expect to launch it during World Breastfeeding Week in Canada. We think it is important that it will feature local women and their babies,” said Corbin.