There is a magazine called "Mothering" that is a great resource for
advocating for a breastfeeding friendly community. It covers topics from
breastfeeding in the workplace, public places, etc. There are lots of
stories in this magazine. One great story I recall was about a woman being
called for jury duty 2-3 times --- She requested to be excused. The judge
gave her some difficulty on the last occasion because of the age of the
child.

Things to think about:
Keeping mom and baby together for breastfeeding as much as possible.
Supporting requirements of pumping and storage, when that is not possible.
Social support of breastfeeding in public.
Social support of breast milk pumping.

Some issues to address are:
Pumping:
Provision of a hospital grade electric breast pump and the environment in
which it is placed. (Mom can buy attachments).
Storage of milk.

Breastfeeding:
Breast feeding anytime, anywhere, as a protected right. Classrooms, meeting
rooms, dining rooms, swimming pools - there are always stories of a mom told
to cover up or asked to move to a bathroom.
A breast feeding room(s), as a choice.
Baby changing stations, preferrably not right in the breast feeding area.
Flexible hours, so that baby can be brought in to mom or that mom can pump
on her own schedule.
On site daycare, to keep baby accessible to mom.
Fluid, nutrition and stress management requirements of mom.

Legislation:
I believe in the United States it is a protected right and in as such, it is
an advantage to be in a litigous society because people are too afraid of
being sued to say anything when you breastfeed your baby in a 4 star
restaurant. However, when discussing this with European friends, they
laughed, because in countries where baring breasts is not an issue, it is
completely unnecessary to legislate the protection of one's right to
breastfeed in public.

I also wonder how the longer 1 year maternity leave in Canada affects mom's
who choose to go back to work or who are in school, since the norm is
probably to stay home with baby. Do these mothers have the opportunity to
continue breast feeding as long? As well, with the extended recommendation
issued by WHO, breastfeeding for longer than 1 year, what are the supports
in place to continue after maternity leave?

Because the maternity leave is extremely short in the United States, by
comparison, I have lots of anecdotal stories of how friends handelled
breastfeeding after return to work and peoiples attitudes to mothers who
breastfed or pumped in the workplace, after going to school there, living
and working there for 3 years. One of my MBA class mates did the traditional
hand pumping in a stall in the ladies washroom, her baby a regular visitor
in the MBA lounge during week-ends where there were lots of group work. In
the workplace - people with private offices definately had an advantage to
continue breast feeding or pumping and could really do there own thing, but
often this iknvited criticism of the colleages. A friend who worked for a
large corporation went to an occupational health office to see the nurse and
to use a pump provided by the company. (In some ways this was better, since
you had an "official" place to do so, which makes it less personal and less
inviting of others' opinions.) I can also tell you, keeping up pumping or
breastfeeding is a real challenge if you have to travel, battery adapters,
flying, breast health complications, supplementation etc. etc. If you have
any questions, please e-mail me.

Since every mom feels different and some really struggle with breastfeeding,
a lot of options are needed.

Good Luck,
Ruth Blochlinger


>From: Ghislaine Goudreau <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Health Promotion on the Internet <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Breastfeeding Friendly Colleges and/or Universities
>Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 16:32:36 -0400
>
>Does anyone know of any Colleges and/or Universities that practice being
>breastfeeding friendly? Any stories or information would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Ghislaine Goudreau
>Health Promoter
>Sudbury and District Health Unit
>1300 Paris Street
>Sudbury ON, P3E 3A3
>(705)522-9200
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] to unsubscribe
>See: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html to alter your
>subscription




_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

Send one line: unsubscribe click4hp to: [log in to unmask] to unsubscribe
See: http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html to alter your subscription