Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Nov 17/99) - Healthy choices leading to healthy moms and new arrivals were big topics of discussion in Rankin Inlet last week.

Twenty-one Canada Prenatal program workers from across Nunavut came together to trade ideas and gather information on how to improve their projects.

Jill Christensen, regional nutritionist for the Keewatin Regional Health Board, says the group gets together in a different region every year to gain a better background in nutrition.

"We cover a wide variety of subjects such as cooking, food selection, lifestyle choices -- all the aspects they need on the job running the programs in their respective communities," says Christensen.

Individual programs usually run from September to June, depending on the community and its funding.

Federal funding is aimed at helping to ensure healthy pregnancies so people have healthy babies.

"In addition to nutritional issues, we work with the moms on topics such as drinking and smoking and also promote breast feeding.

"We look at everything which affects the outcome of a pregnancy."

Christensen says the gathering is also a good time for program workers to look at what's working in different communities and what isn't.

She applauded the efforts of staff workers in both Arviat and Baker Lake for making their programs smoke-free.

"The program is too intensive to be always stopping for smoke breaks. Allowing smoke breaks to begin with doesn't send too positive a message about healthy lifestyles."

Joyce Bourne made the trip from the Kitikmeot for the gathering.

She says this is the second year for all the Nunavut projects to come together and the program is still maturing.

"The workshops really help us to see what further training the various communities need because they're all at such different levels.

"Some, for example, feel comfortable in planning their own learning sessions and some don't.

"We'll be working on developing plans for those communities and that's good because it gives us some sort of quality control and helps ensure everyone realizes what resources they're using."

Baker Lake had one of the first prenatal programs in the North and Bourne said Baker's program is contacted a lot for advice.

"It's almost like they're THE program for the North and everyone looks up to them.

"They produced a Northern prenatal health video (A Gift for Life) about three years ago.

"It really addressed prenatal issues in a Northern context. We received orders from all over Canada. It was meant for an aboriginal audience and it really hit the mark."