By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — What’s this world coming to? Women were breast-feeding in North Park on Friday morning.
The activity is protected under state law, but Christina Enos says public attitude is still the biggest obstacle she faces as a mom who chose to nurse her four children.
“I had a hard time nursing my twins, especially in public,” said Enos, who ran into trouble when she tried to nurse at the mall several years ago.
“They told me I had to go; I was bothering people. But I told them no,” Enos said. “I get dirty looks. It’s usually the older people, which surprises me.”
The nursing moms gathered in North Park on Friday morning for their annual Party in the Park, a celebration of the natural, healthy, nutritious way of raising infants, which also has been shown to increase parent-child bonding.
Laurie DeVivo, a breast-feeding peer helper and certified lactation counselor with the county’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, said there is still a lot of work to be done in educating the public about breast-feeding’s benefits and the mother’s right to practice it. She said an entire generation of Americans virtually eliminated the practice, so there is a lot of cultural resistance to it.
“We’re taking baby steps,” said DeVivo. Those steps include an international symbol for breast-feeding, which mothers can look for in the windows of public places, and the Ohio law that allows a woman to nurse in any location in which she has right to be.
The World Health Organization has been a strong advocate of breast-feeding and set a 2010 goal of 75 percent initiation worldwide. Sherry Snitcher, an internationally board-certified lactation counselor who works for the county’s WIC Program, says the figure in Ashtabula County is roughly 65 percent. The weeks following initiation following a baby’s birth take a heavy toll on the practice as the new mom tries to balance nursing with other postpartum issues, including lack of sleep, responsibilities to other children and family resistance.
One of the big issues is returning to work, said DeVivo. Breast pumps allow the mother to collect the milk while she takes a break. Or, a mom can work with a spouse or partner to bring the infant to the workplace for the feeding. Enos, who works for a big-box retailer, has her husband bring her daughter to the store when she’s on her break.
“You don’t have to stop breast-feeding when you go back to work,” said Michelle Pitkin, a breast-feeding peer helper with WIC.
Moms who make the decision to nurse also may encounter resistance from sisters and mothers who did not go that route. DeVivo said the counselors often encounter feelings of guilt in these women as they struggle with their decision.
Breast-feeding is literally a natural fit for WIC, which focuses on good nutrition for women, infants and children. DeVivo said Ashtabula County was one of several Ohio counties where WIC piloted a peer-help breast-feeding component to the program. It is now almost universally included in all Ohio WIC programs.
Prenatal mothers who enter the WIC Program attend a class that presents the breast-feeding option.
“Our mission is to educate them so they make an informed decision,” DeVivo said.
If they choose that route, support is available one on one and through a monthly group of breast-feeding moms. The group meets at the WIC office the second Thursday of the month, except August, when the Party in the Park takes the place of the brunch.
“August is Breast-Feeding Awareness Month,” DeVivo said. “This is to celebrate breast-feeding. Our moms do such a good job.”
DeVivo estimates that the Ashtabula County program annually assists about 200 mothers with breast-feeding support. Those mothers, as well as their family members and former nursing mothers, are invited to participate in the annual celebration. The event offered healthy snacks prepared from items in the WIC Program, a literature table, door prizes and a Chinese auction of breast-feeding supplies and clothing.
The WIC Program will host a breast-feeding Rock and Relax station in the Commercial Building at the Ashtabula County Fair next week. There also will be public awareness messages about breast-feeding on community marquees and outreach to health-care providers during August.
