CRHS Offers breast-feeding classes, support to moms

“Breast-feeding was almost a lost art,” says Lisa Garrell, R.N., a nurse at Columbus Regional Healthcare System’s Birthing Center and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) accreditation.

“A lot of women who are grandmothers and great-grandmothers today weren’t of the ‘breast-feeding generation,’” she said. "So they may not understand all the benefits – to mother and baby – and encourage their daughters to nurse their newborns."

But Garrell says the pendulum is swinging, and that’s good public health news.

“I was recently educating 17 expectant moms,” she said. “Thirteen women were already sold on the idea of breast-feeding, three were unsure and one said she wasn’t interested.”

Garrell likes to arm those on the fence with the facts.

“Infant formula is an artificial food,” she says. “It’s really a medication.”

Often, that news alone is enough for a skeptic to try breast-feeding. If it’s not, Garrell has more to say on the topic she’s passionate about:

• Breast milk is a living liquid. It changes over time as the mom makes new antibodies. “It changes to protect the baby,” Garrell says.
• Babies who are breast-fed have a reduced risk of gastrointestinal trouble.
• Breastfed babies have a decreased risk of dying of SIDS.
• Moms who breast-feed have a decreased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer and diabetes.
• New evidence suggests women who breast-feed may even have a decreased risk of cardio vascular disease later in life. The longer you breast feed, the more these risks are decreased.
• Breast-feeding burns many calories so it may assist in losing weight.

First-time moms are often overwhelmed by the feeling they get from breast-feeding their babies.

“It’s a feeling of complete love,” Garrell says.

She also wants to be sure women know that, in North Carolina, nursing moms can breast-feed in public whether they choose to cover their breasts or not.

“It’s your right,” she says.

While there’s no magic amount of time women should breast-feed, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend breast-feeding exclusively for the first six months of a child’s life. But any amount of breast-feeding is beneficial.

Garrell concedes breast-feeding may be a little uncomfortable at first for some nursing moms. But she encourages them to stick with it and tells them it does get easier.

“If you go into it with an ‘I’m going to be successful’ attitude, you will be,” she said.

We are here to help! Any new mom who gives birth at Columbus Regional Healthcare System has automatic – and complimentary – access to a lactation specialist. In birthing classes offered to expectant parents, breast-feeding is the third class in the series of four.

Call (910)642-9331 or visit www.crhealthcare.org to learn more.