Inuvik Regional Hospital promotes breast-feeding
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Jun 04/01) - The Inuvik Regional Hospital is vying to become one of the country's prestigious "baby friendly" hospitals.
The long process of winning rights to the title involves a solid emphasis on breast-feeding education. Only one Canadian hospital -- in Quebec -- currently carries that designation, but others are close.
Lorna Arsenault, baby-friendly co-ordinator, said the Inuvik hospital is about three to five years away if everything goes as planned.
"That is quite a status symbol," she said.
All practices at the hospital will be affected.
"It looks at everything that impacts breast-feeding," Arsenault added, from medications used during labour to the high turnover among staff. "One nurse might be gung ho and know all the information and the next may not."
The national organization that monitors baby-friendly hospitals has 10 criteria, largely based on mother and staff education and procedures that emphasize nursing.
Arsenault said health is the number one reason for taking on the mission. Babies that are breast-fed suffer fewer illnesses, such as ear infections, and statistically, mothers tend to be healthier.
Another motive is cost. Healthier babies and mothers mean lower expense incurred by health boards and hospitals as well as families.
A can of formula costs $12 to $13 in Inuvik, far higher than in the south.
"There are certainly more ear infections and more (hospital) visits," observed Patty Murphy, when she was a health-centre nurse based in Tuktoyaktuk. She now works at the Inuvik Regional Hospital in administration.
"There is certainly more compared to Ontario."
Arsenault said the last collection of statistics provided to her showed that 19 per cent of babies born here are exclusively breast-fed, while 68 per cent are on a combination of breast milk and formula.
"That's a big number to be supplemented," she said. The overall rate of initiating breastfeeding is comparable to that for the rest of Canada.
"The evidence is clear that the women who choose to breastfeed have more benefits for themselves and their babies," Arsenault added. "And they are cheaper mothers and babies to the health-care system."
On board with the hospital's initiative is the Inuvik Native Band, which donated two $1,100 breast pumps recently.
"They are good, strong breast pumps," Arsenault said. "It is one little thing and the little things add up."
The pumps allow mothers to continue producing milk if separated from their babies for any given reason.
"It is a needed commodity," said Elizabeth Hansen, band councillor for the Nihtat Gwich'in band council. "It was all traditional practice for many years."
"This isn't traditional," she said waving her hand toward the pump. "But it is still the cheapest and healthiest method."
