A local organization is starting a “Breastfeeding Café” to provide nursing moms and their partners with a place to learn more about breastfeeding.
The café, run by WE (Women Everywhere) Breastfeed volunteers and co-ordinators, starts Jan. 9 and will be run at the downtown branch of the Guelph Community Health Centre in the large, main-floor children’s room.
The café will be run as a pilot program each Wednesday for 12 weeks. Trained volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and provide support to nursing moms from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on a drop-in basis, a news release said.
A lactation consultant will also be available by phone from the drop-in, if needed, it said, and free childcare will be provided on site for older siblings.
Organizers are hoping to see a healthy turnout with a mind toward making the Breastfeeding Café a permanent resource, the release said.
WE Breastfeed is a peer support program at the health centre that pairs volunteers who have nursed their own babies with mothers who are currently nursing and need support.
Volunteers complete an 18-hour World Health Organization/UNICEF breastfeeding course for peer support.
The program is open to all Guelph mothers, and it makes a particular effort to reach mothers facing barriers to breastfeeding support, including teenage moms, those living on limited incomes, those new to Canada and those living with a disability, the release said. The program currently has 19 volunteers with different backgrounds and experiences with breastfeeding.
For more information on the program, visit www.guelphchc.ca, or contact Peggy Nickels at pnickels@guelphchc.ca or 519-821-6638, ext. 367.