QEH breastfeeding advocate calls for culture shift

Registered nurse and midwife at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Shermena Kirton, has called for a cultural shift in Barbadians’ approach to breastfeeding, arguing that more mothers need support from families, workplaces, and society if the island is to improve breastfeeding rates and the long-term health of its population.

“The vision is to make breastfeeding the culture. Right now breastfeeding is not the culture in Barbados,” she said on the season five finale of the QEH’s Pulse Radio Show. “The culture has to change. People have to see the benefits of breastfeeding for their child, for themselves, for the economy, for the nation. One mother choosing to breastfeed affects the nation.”

While more mothers are being encouraged to breastfeed, changing public attitudes remains one of the biggest challenges, she said.

“They are being encouraged. Social media is still our battle because social media promotes formula. Initially breastfeeding is going to be hard. It’s not going to be easy to start, but the rewards in the long run are far greater than succumbing to formula.”

Show host Shane Sealy, the QEH communications specialist, said the hospital has intensified its public education campaign over the past year, hailing Kirton, who “really hit the ground running” in helping mothers understand the importance of breastfeeding.

Kirton highlighted research which continues to show significant long-term benefits of breastfeeding:

“[Fewer] heart attacks, less diabetes, less hypertension, less mental disorders, because they say breastfed babies are more psychologically stable and more psychologically stable adults.”

Breastfeeding also benefits mothers by reducing their risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, diabetes and hypertension, she added.

But Kirton noted that one of the main barriers nursing mothers face is returning to work, where many are unable to express and safely store breast milk.

“If we say we want to promote breastfeeding… then we have to do everything we can as a public, as Barbados, to help a mother to breastfeed. You need somewhere private, comfortable to sit in, a fridge, and somewhere to wash up stuff. That’s it, and you have a breastfeeding area.”

She urged businesses to establish lactation rooms or designate suitable private spaces for nursing mothers, noting that women often resort to expressing milk in bathrooms because no appropriate facilities exist.

The QEH has extended breastfeeding awareness throughout August, as World Breastfeeding Week coincides with the climax of the Crop Over Festival next week, Kirton said.  As part of the month-long observance, the QEH will host a Breastfeeding Awareness Booth and Pop-Up Day on Thursday week, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the hospital’s ground floor. The event will feature exhibits from the Labour Ward, Post-Natal Ward, Antenatal Clinic, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Foundation and other partners.

Kirton also announced that educational breastfeeding sessions will be held in the Antenatal Clinic throughout August, while a seminar and awards ceremony is scheduled for August 19 at the QEH auditorium under the theme Breastfeeding: A Sustainable Start to Life, Strengthen What Works.

The hospital will also stage a colouring and art competition for primary schools as part of efforts to normalise conversations about breastfeeding from an early age.

“We want the children to start talking about breastfeeding,” Kirton said. “Breasts have been seen to be so sexualised when breasts were really intended for feeding children… We want to change that.”

Sealy encouraged Barbadians to support the initiative, describing breastfeeding as “that liquid gold gift of life” and saying the campaign aims to improve not only infant nutrition but the health of future generations.

 

(LE)