ADVICE FOR NEW MOMS
Breastfeeding campaign
Windsor and Essex County’s rate of mothers who solely breastfeed their infants six months after birth — eight per cent — is a fraction of the provincial average. Officials at the local health unit, working hard the last few years to understand why the local rate is so low, said Wednesday that recent approval for a worldwide designation shows the area is doing the right things to move closer to the Ontario average of 33 per cent. “It’s about working ( better) with the community,” said Debbie Silvester, the health unit’s manager of healthy families.
“There is a lot of inconsistent information out there that women get.
“Before their pregnancy, during the pregnancy, when they leave the hospital and after they come home, they get told something different. (This program) is one strategy to provide consistent information. We need to work to make sure the information is the same.” The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is the 39th entity in the province — eight of them hospitals — endorsed for what’s known as the Baby-Friendly Initiative. It is a program established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The health unit had to demonstrate that it provides support and promotes breastfeeding in the community in order to receive the designation.
It includes also supporting mothers who, after receiving full information, decide on feeding alternatives other than breastfeeding — often due to medical complications or other issues. Local statistics show 64 per cent of new mothers leave the hospital with the intention to solely breastfeed their babies at least for the first six months.
But the numbers drop to 30 per cent by the age of two months, with another “significant drop” between four and six months down to eight per cent, Silvester said. New local mom Melissa Rudy spoke Wednesday of the breastfeeding difficulties she has struggled with since the birth of her 11-month-old daughter Sloane.
Battling postpartum depression, infections and several issues with feeding her daughter, Rudy detailed how she initially struggled to even find the support she needed to breastfeed her daughter. Then it became difficult finding a consistent message among the various health-care providers that she did consult.
“I want every mom to know even though they say breastfeeding is natural and not supposed to hurt, it does and is not easy,” Rudy said. “Also, that there is support out there (in the Windsor area), but we need better access to information on how we can find that support.” Without knowing exactly where to turn, “it means people are going to give up,” Rudy said.
Part of the frustration for new moms has been the mixed message across the local medical community on when parents should begin providing solids, water or juices to their babies, Silvester said. Also, new parents increasingly seek information on the internet about baby feeding instead of better-informed sources such as the health unit, she said.
Rudy ’s experience unfortunately “can be common,” Silvester said. “We have to do a better job,” she said.
“This (designation) shows we are committed to that.
“We also need to ask the moms more often on what we can do to be of better help. We still have a lot of work to do.”