Advice helpful for nursing moms
By Holly Brodhagen
Canada celebrates World Breastfeeding Week from October 1-7. The theme is “Breastfeeding Support: Close To Mother”, and the campaign is highlighting Breastfeeding Peer Support.
It is important to the success of breastfeeding that mothers not only be supported by their immediate families but also by the private and public sector.
Health Canada and the World Health organization recommend that babies be exclusively breastfed for six months and that breastfeeding continue up to two years or more. Breastmilk provides optimal nutritional, immunological and emotional nurturing of infants, so it is important that mothers have support to start and continue to breastfeed.
As it says on the campaign website, “The key to best breastfeeding practices is continued day-to-day support for the breastfeeding mother in her home and community.”
Breastfeeding Peer Support Programs are a cost-effective and highly-productive way to provide support to mothers who are breastfeeding. Generally, these programs operate using volunteers who have special training to assist them working with clients.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I signed up for a peer support program that had a mother call me at regular intervals for months following birth. She was a great support whom I could talk to about breastfeeding concerns but also about daily life as a new mom. After a year, I chose to train and become a volunteer for the same programs. In the six years I have been a volunteer I have supported 11 mothers. When my second daughter was born I signed up again for support because, just as every child is different, so is every breastfeeding experience. Thanks to those volunteers I was able to exclusively breastfeed for six months and continue on breastfeeding for two years per child.
It is important that a breastfeeding mother have access to a support system that can see her through situations that might lead to the mother choosing to quit breastfeeding. For instance, all babies go through growth spurts which means increased feeding. It can be hard for woman to suddenly have a baby breastfeeding constantly in order to build supply. A peer support volunteer can help that mother to get through those periods and supply her with the knowledge that this is a normal occurrence and she can continue to breastfeed successfully. The volunteers can also support moms by encouraging them to seek support or help from other community resources that they might not be aware of.
I recommend that any woman expecting a baby contact her local Peer Support program or Health Unit to find out about local programs. Consider it another step in preparing for the birth. Support can be in place before the baby arrives and the mom will know that she can expect that person to contact her. Sometimes just knowing that there is someone she can talk to when needed – no matter what time of day or night – can encourage that mother to continue to breastfeed.
It takes a community to help a Mother to raise her child from birth on.