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22 saturday oct 5 2002 c economist sun stouffville tribune health finding formula for breastfeeding llss staff photomike barrett aurora resident and new mom cindy galpin experienced pain and frustration trying to get son william to breastfeed some mothers struggle with natural process by simone joseph staff writer before cindy galpin had her first child five months ago she had an idealized vision of what breastfeeding would be like i had expected it to be a warm fuzzy feeling i expected it to work right away almost to feel euphor ic this heavenly experience between mother and child but as the aurora resi dent quickly discovered rather than being an instinc tive automatic action breastfeeding involves work hard work she tried to feed her son william about four or five hours after delivery but had trouble getting the baby to latch on whats more it hurt so she tried again and again and again i went through feelings of inadequacy at first because i couldnt feed my baby and i wanted to so badly finally on her third day in hospital little william successfully latched on to his mothers breast mrs galpin thought she had mastered the skill but there were still times when it was painful or william was too fussy frustrating them both then when william was six weeks old mrs galpins doctor put her on a birth control pill lowering her milk supply and making feeding even more difficult luckily while mrs galpin was having trouble breastfeeding she got plenty of guidance from nurses a lactation consultant a breastfeeding clinic and an encouraging husband she persisted but plenty of mothers give up there are a relatively high percentage of moms who will quit breastfeeding because of the painful nip ples or the worry the babies arent getting enough milk says ann ciniglio a york region public health nurse and member of the breastfeeding coalition of york region pain is one of the most common complaints espe cially in the first few days of trying to breastfeed follow ing birth she says york regions public health department wants to understand factors that influence a womans deci sion to breastfeed in the first week of september the public health unit began studying breastfeeding as part of a larger nutritional survey funded by the ministry of health and longterm care i went through feelings of inadequacy at first because i couldnt feed my baby and i wanted to so badly the region is one of eight participating in the study which will look at the num ber of women who initiate breastfeeding how many continue feeding and what helped them decide to breastfeed the health unit needs to secure funding for the second phase of the study planned for march when participants babies will be about six months old the unit hopes the study will guide it in making pro gram decisions and decid ing how to allocate funding part of our mandate is to try to increase breastfeed ing in our region says linda adamsbest healthy children team manager with york region health services awareness of breastfeed ing programs is badly need ed says nancy phillips leader with the thornhill west group of la leche league part of an interna tional support network for breastfeeding women there are lots of services for breastfeeding mothers that mothers arent aware of so they dont even know that support services for breast feeding exist she says the league often gets calls from mothers having trouble with breastfeeding who dont know where to turn she says mothers fre quently have to search to find the services they need she adds for example the mother of six- week old twins who called ms phillips recently was already pumping milk and bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding she did nt know about breastfeed ing clinics and was alone and isolated ms phillips says she had no help no support thats very com mon leaders get calls all the time from moms who finally found us women often dont get the support they need because doctors nurses and other healthcare providers arent adequately educated about breastfeeding and pediatricians dont make the proper referrals to public health nurses and doctors specializing in breastfeed ing she says there are too many healthcare professionals who need to know more about breastfeeding she says when a woman fails at breastfeeding i dont blame that mother women who quit breast feeding miss out on major health benefits breastfeed ing advocates say mothers pass antibodies which they have built up to ward against infections and bac teria on to their babies ms ciniglio says it gives babies an see breastfeeding page 23 ii lost 154 lbs of body fat and have energy to spare maureen hall age40 occupation account representative losing weight and keeping it off isnt a matter of starving for the rest of your life its abut sensible nutrition mixed with sensible weekly exercise getting in shape staying in condition and enjoying the process can be as simple as being on the right program many of our members are people just like you and he had great success 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