Home & People Breast-feeding advocates

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 10

Home & People Breast-feeding advocates

By

GENEVIEVE FORDE

Two thousand breastfeeders from 43 countries will attend a convention in Atlanta, Georgia, from July 6 to 9; and a Christchurch woman, Mrs Rachel Walker, will be among them. A breast-feeders’ convention? The mind boggles. Only the Americans could do it. Will they all have their babies with them, one wonders? However, it’s not quite like that, as Mrs Walker pointed out. She is the newly appointed regional administrator for the La Leche (Spanish for "the milk”) League in New Zealand and the South Pacific. Her four children range from four to 12 years, arid they were all breast-fed. It is not necessary for a delegate to the Atlanta

conference, or a member of the League in New Zealand, to be currently breast-feeding. “As long as you’ve been through the experience of breast-feeding and have followed the philosophy of the La Leche League, you can be a member,” said Mrs Walker. “Our philosophy is: ‘We believe in good mothering through breast-feeding.’ ” Although she breast-fed her first child, Marnie, it wasn’t until Seumas came along that she came in touch with the La Leche League, which started in New Zealand about 10 years ago. “I thought that I would be able to help them, since I was a trained nurse, but it was the other way round.

“Mamie was a premature baby; she was breast-fed, but if I’d been in touch with the league it may have been more successful. “Seumas was a very wakeful baby. The league was just starting in Christchurch 10 years ago and I was very grateful to them for the help I had with him. “Talking to other mothers, I found that it wasn’t the breastfeeding that was wrong with him: it was just that I had to find how to cope with a baby who didn’t want to sleep much and who required shorter and more frequent feeds; more handling. “I had Nadine then. She was quite straightforward. Then Nathan had a cleft of the soft palate. I know of no other mother who

has breast-fed a baby with this.

“I didn’t get any ' guidance from the medical profession on how to breast-feed him, but I felt I wanted to persevere because we have allergies in the family and breast-feed-ing tends to help these babies. “It could also help develop the muscles in his mouth — the speech therapist says it probably has. Nobody could tell that he has a cleft palate from his speech now .. . but I couldn't have done it except for the league,” Mrs Walker has been a leader in the league for nine years, and has helped to train other leaders as well. In addition, she was closely involved with the production of an instruction booklet: “Breastfeeding. Why and How.” It is the only one of its kind and now is commonly seen in doctors’ waitingrooms and in hospitals. It was produced with the help of Telethon Funds in 1976 and has been translated into Samoan. The league is hoping, funds being available, to republish it and translate it into other lan-. guages. There are now It l.a Leche groups in Christchurch and over 130 throughout New Zealaand, with over 300 groups leaders between them. In the 10 years since it started the number of breastfeeding mothers in New Zealand has increased correspondingly, Mrs Walker said. In 1968, according to Plunket nurses, 47 per

cent of new mothers were breast-feeding. In 1978 the percentage had risen to 65.4 per cent. Perhaps the most interesting paper being given at the convention in Atlanta is entitled: “Infant Abuse Among Gorillas — A Lesson in Mothering.” Mrs Walker is looking forward to that. She is also involved in a number of pre-con-vention workshops and is moderating for some discussions during the convention, so it should be a busy week tor her. “I hope to be able to bring back a lot of information to help mothers in New Zealand and so to

help the next generation,’’ she said. “We feel that getting across that, babies need their mothers is important — that they should put their babies first. “Some mothers reel nowadays that they'll be tied to the home if they breast-feed — that’s one of the reasons why some bottle-feed. “But. really, the bottlefed babies require even more security if they’re going to be OK. The mother would need to concentrate more on mothering if the baby is not breast-fed.” While she thinks it ideal if the mother is not going

out to work with a new baby she concedes that it is a'personal thing. “If she does have to work,” Mrs Walker said, “there are ways and means of continuing the breast-feeding relationship.’’

At about the same time as the convention — from July 8 to July 13 — the La Leche League is planning an “International Week of the Breast-fed baby.” In Christchurch, the league plans to hold a public meeting on July 13, with a panel of speakers including a doctor, plunket nurse and a midwife.