Breastfeeding: The Primary Care Provider’s Role
Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in Canada annually from Oct 1-7. This is an opportunity to reflect on how to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. This year’s theme is: “Empower parents, enable breastfeeding.”
Why protect, promote, and support breastfeeding?
For many reasons, breastfeeding and human milk are important for the health of babies, mothers, families, and populations. Encouragement and support from primary care providers influences the initiation and duration of breastfeeding.
Below are a few steps primary care providers can consider.
- Start a conversation.
The prenatal period is a key time to create space for discussions about infant feeding. Consider a simple opener: “Tell me about your plans for feeding your baby.”
This is an opportunity to:
- explore your client’s goals, concerns, and information needs,
- provide information to support informed decision making about infant feeding, and
- let her know that you are there to support her whatever her decision is.
Continue to create space for these discussion in the post-partum period.
Health professionals can build their skills and confidence in guiding conversations about infant feeding decisions with the help of this tool: Informed Decision Making: Having Meaningful Conversations Regarding Infant Feeding
- Learn more.
Additional online education opportunities and tools include:
- Latching On: How Family Physicians Can Support Breastfeeding Patients (1-hour module, UBC Faculty of Medicine)
- Breastfeeding Essentials for Physicians (4-hour course, Step 2 Education)
- Breastfeeding Protocols for Health Care Providers (Breastfeeding Resources Ontario)
- But I Don't Do Maternity Care! Specialist Physician Management of the Breastfeeding Patient (15-minute module, UBC Faculty of Medicine)
- Refer when needed.
Women need prompt support to manage challenges that may arise when breastfeeding. In addition to the support you provide, what additional resources are available in your community?
Resources may include other physicians, lactation consultants, primary care or maternity nurses, midwives, La Leche League leaders/groups, and others.
- Create breastfeeding-friendly spaces.
The right to breastfeed is a human right in BC. It is discriminatory to ask a mother to cover up or move elsewhere to breastfeed.
Demonstrate a positive attitude to breastfeeding and welcome clients to breastfeed in waiting rooms and during consultations - any time, anywhere.
Consider displaying one or more of the following:
- Window decal – We welcome you to breastfeed any time, anywhere
- Poster – We welcome you to breastfeed any time, anywhere
Further reading:
- BC Lifetime Prevention Schedule: Behavioural Counseling Interventions – Promotion of Breastfeeding (March 2018 update, pages 26-35)
- Position paper: Breastfeeding, Family Physicians Supporting (American Academy of Family Physicians)
- Series Papers - Breastfeeding (The Lancet)
Submitted by:
Dr. Jong Kim, Northeast Medical Health Officer
Vanessa Salmons, Executive Lead: Perinatal Program
Lise Luppens, Population Health Dietitian
Kathryn Germuth, Regional Nursing Lead: Maternal, Infant, and Child