Louise Dumas wrote:
>Dear Wendey,
>I have to disagree with you about the Quebec government and its
>involvement in the building of the new perinatal ward in Laval... Laval
>is but one place in the whole province.

exactly.  The 'here' I was reffering to though wasn't the whole province.
There are some wonderful things going on in the province in *general*
regarding bfing (the breastfeeding friendly stickers on various places in
Montreal for one! =D) but honestly on this particular island I don't think
people even know what they're for.  I swear I've never seen a single soul
breastfeed here except for the nurse in that was held at the mall a couple
years ago.  Now in Montreal, a mere 5 minutes across the river, I've seen
some.

>I would also tell you this is the
>way here, in Gatineau hospital (Western Quebec).

actually it's that way in some of the Montreal hospitals too.  When I had
my first son, I ended up transfering to the hospital (Jewish General) in
labor and wasn't given a drop of a formula sample, taking the baby anywhere
wasn't even mentioned, and actually they only had a teeny tiny room for a
well-baby nursery which was mainly used by moms who'd had c-sections and
were getting some much needed rest.

>You should
>complain at the regional level instead since they are the ones
>responsible for the plans.

We did.  We're awful we even complained when they showed the new hospital
on the news and every single baby had a pacifier in it's mouth. ;-)  We
actually wrote and asked them what kind of health image this was promoting
(in nice professional ways of course).

>I know it is sometimes decouraging but we have
>to work into public education. The public is our clients but it is also
>the representatives on the hospital boards and at the government level.
>They will do what they think is best. We have to prove them and re-prove
>them what is best.

Very true.  I've been a consumer for so long I'm just getting used to and
beginning to work in the service part, and as a consumer I was used to
having to 'fight bureaucracy' to get the things that to me were obvious, it
never occured to me parents wouldn't WANT rooming in or wouldn't WANT
breastfeeding friendly settings.  I was very naive, I thought *everyone*
breastfed the first couple days except people who were adopting out or had
medications or were being sabatoged.  No one laugh!  really it's true I had
no clue anyone chose to bottlefeed from day one!

-wendey studying LC in Montreal