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Orangeville to host fourth annual breastfeeding celebration picnic

June 28, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Makayla Pereira

The Breastfeeding Collaborative of Dufferin & East Wellington will be hosting the fourth annual breastfeeding week celebration picnic in Orangeville.

On Thursday, August 1,  the breastfeeding week celebration picnic will talk place at Fendley Park:, Orangeville from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

“It’s to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. It’s just to invite families out, you don’t have to be currently nursing a child or have nursed a child to join. It’s free to everyone,” said Denise Ponte, a parent member of the collaborative.

Ms. Ponte says it’s important for mothers to be aware and informed about the resources and support that is available to them in Dufferin.

The World Breastfeeding Week 2019 slogan is “Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding.” 

“It was chosen to be inclusive of all types of parents in today’s world. Focusing on supporting both parents to be empowered is vital in order to reraise their breastfeeding goals. When fathers, partners, families, workplaces, and communities support the breastfeeding mother, breastfeeding improves. Breastfeeding is a team effort. To enable breastfeeding, we all need to protect, promote, and support it,” says The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) 

The breastfeeding collaborative group is made up of people who work for public health, the Headwaters Health Care Foundation, the Midwives, Doulas, and parents. It’s a collaborative of people who want to promote breastfeeding and help those experiencing challenges with breastfeeding.

Ms. Ponte has always been an advocate for breastfeeding as she’s breastfeed both her children well beyond on their first year of life. 

She created a Facebook page called Mom and Breastfeeding Support Orangeville/ Dufferin four years ago in an effort to provide the mothers in our community with a platform to ask questions, receive answers or be directed to someone who can help them.

“A lot of moms come to the page for me to guide them as to who to contact I just want to be the middle man. I share information for moms like if public health shares something about vaccination or sunscreen or sun safety. They ask the questions and I direct them with our collaborative resources we have created,” Ms. Ponte explained.

The celebration picnic always has a great turnout with a large number of families attending the event. This year they hope to have an even bigger turnout. The picnic will include watermelon, cake, and activities for the children from EarlyOn Child and Family Centre.

Breastfeeding Collaborative of DEW stated the following: “We are a local collaborative of public agencies, private businesses and parents that promote a supportive culture of breastfeeding in our community. We want to help increase the number of families that start breastfeeding, exclusively breastfeed for the first six months and continue to breastfeed for two years and beyond. If you would like to join the collaborative email: info@wdgpublichealth.ca”

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