Breastfeeding and Public Pools: Success at the Talisman Centre

By: Brooke McCallum-Bont

We are all social creatures at heart. We all want to belong, to be treated as equals and to be respected. We are happiest when we are accepted and supported by our families and communities, by our workplaces and in our social arenas. Being publicly shamed and belittled can be devastating. Being shamed for a human act as natural as breastfeeding is inexcusable.

Resolving Tongue-Tie

by Katherine Teske

On January 31, 2011, my baby was born 7 1/2 weeks premature. Isaiah spent three weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. While he grew and made tentative first attempts at breastfeeding, I pumped to bring in my milk supply. What a supply it was! I soon made enough milk to fill a freezer-- much more than Isaiah needed. This oversupply continued to affect our nursing relationship for many months.

Skin-to-Skin: A vital practice

By Kim Johnstone, IBCLC

I recently attended the Alberta Breastfeeding Committee’s conference: Infant feeding: Best practice steps for primary preventative care. Over 100 of Alberta’s health care professionals ranging from delivery room nurses to lactation consultants and doulas attended the day-long conference with two of Canada’s experts on infant feeding best practices, Marianne Brophy and Louise Dumas.

Human Milk Banking

by Jodine Chase

Why did it take so many years for this vital service to return?

Even though it is well known in Alberta that human milk is what all babies need to reduce the risk of illness and for optimum growth, Alberta lost its milk banks in Edmonton and Calgary the 1980s. [i] [ii]

The Calgary Mothers’ Milk Bank: Jannette Festival, the visionary behind it all

by Mimi Pendlebury

Calgary has some amazing visionary women! One of those women is Jannette Festival, Executive Director of Calgary Mothers’ Milk Bank Association. In September 2010, Jannette Festival RN, IBCLC was working at the Foothills Hospital in the postpartum unit. A mother from Nelson, BC had a baby girl on the unit in palliative care. While caring for the girl and her family, Jannette was impressed at how well the girl was doing on human milk. As the time grew near for the family to return home, the girl’s mother organized a radio appeal for breastmilk for her daughter. The response was 20 liters of raw, unpasteurized mothers’ milk!

Tips for Breastfeeding in Public

By Tamie-Ann Langevin

Practice nursing in front of a mirror. The view from across a room is not the same as when you look down on yourself. Once you see how very little is revealed when nursing your baby, you will feel more at ease.
Nurse in a carrier of your choice. Upright nursing in a sling, wrap, or mei tai is very convenient. Baby just needs to be lowered a bit to be at breast height.

Breastfeed in public: anytime, anywhere

By Teresa Pitman

Breastfeeding is the biologically normal way to feed human babies. However, negative attitudes towards breastfeeding in public are still a barrier to breastfeeding for many women. Meeting our babies’ most basic need should not be fraught with anxiety. We have successfully changed attitudes before – women can vote now after all. Teresa Pitman reveals why it is so important to nurse our babies anytime, anywhere and explains how to do it.

Alberta Breastfeeding Committee

Coming on the heels of a successful fall conference in Edmonton with Louise Dumas and Marianne Brophy on skin-to-skin and the Breastfeeding Friendly Initiative (see the Winter 2011 issue of Birthing magazine and our links for more about this amazing skin-to-skin research), the Alberta Breastfeeding Committee (ABC) confirmed plans at its AGM in Red Deer November 4^th for two conference locations for 2012.

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