This appeared in the Saturday, Jan 27 2001 edition of the Toronto
Star.  Michele Landsberg is a well known Canadian journalist, a
feminist, and a stalwart protector of Women and Childrens rights.
She
has an impeccable reputation and is best known for her scathing
attacks on Ontarios' Conservative Provincial Government.  She is
very
widely read, and her column appears on Page 1 of the "Life"
section.

This was what she wrote on Sat.

"Breast-feeding a human right for mom, baby

 IT'S GREAT to hear praise and promises on all sides for ``early
childhood development'' - even if Quebec is still the only province
that comes close to fulfilling that promise. Now how about some
drum
rolls and trumpet fanfares for ``earliest childhood development''?
Extraordinarily, the most basic enhancement of life available to
infants - breast-feeding - is still not seen as a human right. The
struggle to breast-feed at work or in public places is still a lonely
one, waged mostly by mothers on their own and their babies' behalf,
sometimes with the help of forward-looking unions. Breast-feeding a
baby is free, environmentally friendly, easier by far than
bottle-feeding, and leads to so many physical and emotional
benefits
for baby, mother and community that you'd think the practice would
be
universal. Among the recent findings in long-term studies around the
world: Babies fed on breast-milk have dramatically sharper vision,
stronger immune systems, fewer ear infections, higher IQ and
reduced
likelihood of asthma, diabetes and Crohn's disease, to name just a
few
physiological rewards. The emotional benefits are incalculable. The
tender intimacy between mother and baby is so intense and joyful,
when
all goes well, that words simply can't convey the depth of the
bonding. You'd think any nation would do everything in its power to
enable and encourage such a high-octane start to life for its future
citizens. Canada, however, has been lackadaisical at best and the
provinces are total slouches. Thank heaven, then, for stalwart
women
like Doris DeGagne, a part- time recreational therapist at a
continuing care centre called Care-west Cross Bow in Calgary.
Alberta,
the mingiest province around, guarantees only four and a half
months
maternity leave for its workers.Carewest, however, allowed a
nine-month leave when DeGagne had her first baby. Determined to
breast-feed, DeGagne ran into a few medical setbacks in the first
few
months. By the time she was due back at work in March '99,
however,
she had established a regime of total breast-feeding every three
hours. (Baby Dana refused bottles and was temporarily off all solid
foods.) It's worth noting that the American Pediatric Association
recommends breast-feeding for a full year and the World Health
Organization suggests two years. When DeGagne tried to extend
her
unpaid leave by six months, so she could keep on breast-feeding,
Carewest refused - even though another employee was prepared to
continue working full-time to cover DeGagne's absence. At best,
Carewest offered to let DeGagne use her regularly scheduled
breaks to
pump and store breast milk. (No wonder, with bosses like this, that
three-quarters of Canada's new mothers begin breast-feeding their
infants and more than two-thirds have given up by six months.)
DeGagne
refused to return to work and was fired. With the help of her union,
the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, DeGagne grieved. Her
union
rep argued before an arbitrator that this was an issue of gender
discrimination. The arbitrator, John Moreau, agreed, ruling that
``breast-feeding is a choice only a woman can make at birth but,
once
made, benefits the woman, her child and society as a whole.'' To
prevent her from making that baby-friendly choice would be
discrimination, he ruled. Moreau relied partly on the 1997 British
Columbia case of Michelle Poirier. She was denied permission to
breast-feed her infant at a lunch- hour seminar ordered by her boss,
the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, for International Women's Day.
(Savour the irony.) It took her six years to win a decision from the
B.C. Supreme Court that this was a case of discrimination based
on
gender. Bit by bit, piece by piece, Canadian mothers are building an
unassailable case for breast-feeding as a human right. DeGagne's
union
has gone further in its advocacy. It recently made arguments to the
Alberta legislative committee looking (somewhat languidly) into
parental leave provisions. The union wants Alberta to grant 18
months
of unpaid leave or at the very least to bring itself into line with
the new federal employment insurance provisions of a year's
maternity
leave with benefits. ``The raising of children,'' wrote the union,
``while first . . . the responsibility of parents, is also a
responsibility of our society at large. In order for our society to
thrive . . . all of us must contribute to the rearing of future
generations.'' In these greedy-guts, destructively selfish,
tax-rebate-grabbing times, it's almost deliriously refreshing to hear
anyone speaking so sanely about simple human realities. We
should go
all out to ensure that the benefits of breast-feeding are universally
encouraged, supported and safeguarded. Instead, depressingly, our
governments, institutions and employers seem carelessly inimical
to
one of the primary acts of human love and care."


This very clever lady can be reached at E-mail:[log in to unmask]

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