Project Success Stories
Constance Lake First Nation:
Initiatives Result in Success
The Aboriginal Healthy Babies Healthy Children staff at
Constance Lake First Nation have been developing innovative
ways of increasing participation in their program. The program
includes weekly prenatal and parenting classes as well as time
with a nurse and a home visitor.
Although attendance has been
good at the prenatal groups, many of the new mothers were
initially reluctant to have the home visits. The home visitor has
worked on this challenge by attending the prenatal classes to
teach crafts and cooking. This allows her to develop a
relationship with the expectant mothers so that they will feel
more comfortable with the visiting when their babies arrive.
As an incentive to attend the prenatal classes, the program
offers food vouchers for supplies such as eggs, milk and juice.
They also send the women home with a bag of healthy food to
encourage them to cook nutritious meals and to try different
foods.
In this small community of approximately 700 people, the
AHBHC program has a relatively heavy workload. They
currently serve 14 expectant mothers, 6 of whom are teenagers.
Their weekly prenatal classes ensure that these moms are
getting basic care.
The AHBHC nurse checks blood pressure,
blood sugar, and weight gain and helps the mothers to learn
about nutrition, breastfeeding and the importance of seeing a
doctor.
AHBHC at Constance Lake has been successful in its goal to
increase breastfeeding. The incidence of breastfeeding has been
very low in the past, in part due to the need for supports and the
fact that many of the mothers have others helping them look
after their children.
“With the teen parents, it is often the
grandmother who takes an active role in caring for the baby,” says
AHBHC coordinator Louise Brisson, noting that bottle-feeding
is more conducive to this arrangement.
The program has been encouraging mothers to see that
breastfeeding is an ideal way to care for a baby.
They have put
together a collage to celebrate all the mothers in the community
who have breastfed their babies. “Even if they are grandmothers
now, we want to know about them,” says Brisson. Mothers are
also offered incentives for breastfeeding from the hospital in
the way of a gift. They receive a second gift if they are still
breastfeeding at the first post-partum doctor’s visit, and
another later on if they continue.
All of this effort has shown
positive results “Last year, we only had one breastfeeding
mother,” says HBHC coordinator Louise Brisson. “This year, we
have five who tried it. That is a 500% increase!”
.
Coordinator is Louise Brisson: (705) 463-2155 or
brissonlg@yahoo.ca
Reprinted from In the Spirit of Healing and Wellness, Vol 4, No. 1 (Fall 2001)
