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Breast is best Breastfeeding week celebrated
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 10, 2013
INUVIK
More than a dozen mothers and health professionals marked World Breastfeeding Week at the Arctic Family Centre on Oct. 3.
The event was organized by a number of groups, including Healthy Families and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority. Heather Keating of Healthy Families and Sarah Harvey of the authority were two of the primary event spokespeople.
They both said the gathering was to inform, educate and, hopefully, encourage more mothers to continue nursing, both at home and in public.
There's still a bit of a social stigma attached to nursing publicly, they both agreed.
"This is really to promote breastfeeding across the country," Keating said. "This is the second annual event we've had here in Inuvik. We really want to promote and make women familiar with the benefits of breastfeeding."
Harvey, who is a pre-natal dietician for the authority, said the numbers of mothers who nurse immediately after giving birth drops considerably after they head home and resume their daily lives.
That happens even though breastfeeding is the most economical and healthiest option for feeding babies, she said.
"It's definitely been a traditional practice here for generations," Harvey said. "And we're trying to get back to that. It's just educating young moms about the benefits, both in immunity and nutritional, of breast milk."
There's been a drop-off in breastfeeding numbers, mostly in the last generation or two, Harvey said. That likely correlates with the ready availability of formula, she added, which is a tremendously expensive option.
As Harvey pointed out, food in the North is expensive enough for ordinary foods, but formula costs are even higher.
"It's disproportionately more expensive than our food is," she said.
"I see all women once they're pregnant, and in my eyes, my job is to educate them on formula-feeding versus breastfeeding and the benefits. Once they've made an informed choice, I support them in that."
"Our initiation rates are quite good," Harvey continued. "It's after that, when they go home that those rates drop off quite a bit with the other stressors and what-not, and that's what we're trying to address. We want to be able to maintain exclusivity, so they're not supplementing with formula."
That can lead to some digestive issues for babies, Harvey said.
"Basically, we're just trying to normalize breastfeeding," she said. "We want to get to the point where everyone, whether it's in the workplace or in public, or their partners and family to be comfortable with breastfeeding, so women can get actively out and about in public and aren't restricted to being at home."
"We're just trying to empower women to realize this is the best choice for them and their babies, and that's what we need to focus on."
Harvey noted that an elder who attended the gathering had spoken of how in her generation formula wasn't an option.
"Some of the other women asked what happened if you had trouble nursing, and she (the elder) looked startled and said 'you just did it,'" Harvey said.
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