Breast feeding, once out of favor, has become fashionable again with the last two generations of Sask-atchewan women.
Janice Reynolds of Winona Farms in Nokomis, Sask., wants to chart that experience.
With a $2,000 grant from the Saskatchewan government’s women’s secretariat, she is trying to find older women who can tell her stories of parenting, feeding and what was considered to be the norm when their children were born.
This project is not tied to a political agenda, Reynolds said, although she wants to present her findings to the Ken Fyke health review.
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“Women still have gaps, especially in rural areas, of information on the benefits of breast feeding.”
She said there are also problems with medical staff who aren’t trained to support or teach mothers how to breast feed. Reynolds said the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon has only one trained lactation staff member, who has been off the job since the fall and was only recently replaced for two days a week.
Saskatoon and Regina health districts deliver half the babies in the province, Reynolds estimated, since many small town hospitals are gone.
She said 80 percent of Saskatchewan mothers start breast feeding, but by the time the baby is six months old, only 40 percent are breast fed.
“It is hard for young women because they try breast feeding and fail and feel guilty the rest of their lives,” Reynolds said.
The World Health Organization recommends that children drink breast milk exclusively until they are six months old. Reynolds said women often quit because of job conflicts, but with the new federal law lengthening maternity leave to a year, she is hoping breast feeding will also be extended.
“(However,) farm women are not covered by this law and the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network passed a resolution about that at its recent meeting.”
Four groups supported the breast feeding report proposal. Most of the government grants went to workshops or events for international women’s day March 8, but Reynolds hopes her report has a shelf life longer than 24 hours. It will be distributed widely to the health, agriculture and labor departments, and to members of the four supporting groups — the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes, SWAN, Moms for Milk and the Breastfeeding Committee for Saskatchewan.
The research project must be completed by the beginning of April, so she would like women who gave birth before 1970 to share their stories with her. Call 306-528-4439 or e-mail dreynolds@sk.sympatico.ca.
