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Written by Caroline Zentner LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Wednesday, 05 August 2009 |
About 70 moms and tots gathered in the Park Place Mall atrium Wednesday for a nurse-in to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week.
Mothers breastfed infants as young as seven weeks old and toddlers up to four years of age at the event, said organizer Daleen Bybee.
“The (World Health Organization) actually recommends two years of breastfeeding and beyond,” Bybee said. “Breastfeeding is becoming more normal. That’s kind of our goal — to normalize breastfeeding.”
While some people may not think breastfeeding is best for babies, she added, others might be uncomfortable seeing a mom nurse her baby.
“We encourage moms to do it discreetly. The point is not to offend people; it’s just to feed your baby,” she said.
Mothers find all sorts of ways to be discreet, using a blanket, wearing two shirts or using a nursing cover, which looks like an apron that fits around the neck.
“As a new mom I lived in Kansas City, I breastfed in the bathroom of a restaurant when I first went out with my newborn because I was getting funny looks at the table,” Bybee said. “I made up my mind I would never breastfeed in a bathroom again.”
The nurse-in was co-sponsored by the La Leche League of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Attachment Parenting Group and Bybee is a member of both. The La Leche League is a breastfeeding peer support group and as a leader, Bybee will give support over the phone, via email and do home and hospital visits if requested.
“Even before they have their babies, a lot of moms are looking for education,” she said. “After their babies are born they’re looking for a lot of one-on-one support.”
Salina Ulrickson, mother of four-month-old Kane, made the decision to breastfeed while still pregnant.
“I really researched it to make sure I was successful and had the support I needed,” she said. “The breastfeeding went really well.”
She’s the first mother in her family to breastfeed and she expects she’ll get some comments from family members when she visits them in September.
“None of them have said anything but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before somebody says ‘How long do you plan on doing this? When are you going to switch him to the bottle?” she said.
She intends to continue until Kane decides to stop, and that’s Abigail Garratt’s plan too. Her son Seth is almost a year old and now on solid food but for the first six months he had only breast milk. Breastfeeding was her automatic choice and she said she was dumbfounded when people asked her if she would breastfeed.
“I was like ‘How else do you feed them?’” she said.
She has gotten some negative comments from people when nursing her baby, like the time she was in the Toronto airport trying to soothe a cranky baby. A stranger, disturbed by the sight of her nursing, asked her to cover up and others have asked her why she’s still nursing.
World Breastfeeding Week, a project of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), continues until Friday and this year’s theme focuses on breastfeeding as an important emergency response. Children are the most vulnerable in emergencies and breastfeeding can be a life-saving intervention. Even in the absence of an emergency, non-breastfed babies under two months of age are six times more likely to die, according to WABA.
Anyone interested in more information about the local La Leche League can contact Bybee at 403-328-0706.
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