Breastfeeding support services to be scaled back at Halifax clinic

Polina Lerman was losing hope. Her milk supply was dropping and she knew that nursing wasn’t providing enough nourishment to her infant daughter.

“For weeks after that I tried everything that you can imagine. Every old wives tale,” the new mom said in an interview.

But things turned around after she started receiving guidance from a lactation consultant at a clinic in Halifax. Thanks to that specialized support, Lerman said she’s now producing five times more milk and is confident in feeding her three-month-old baby.

But the publicly funded clinic is set to be scaled back in the new year.

Parents and babies will still be able to access support by appointment, but a drop-in service will be discontinued in January.

The operators had recently extended the hours of the weekly drop-in session in response to demand.

The service was run by a nurse practitioner, who is also a lactation consultant, and the Chebucto Family Resource Centre. It was funded by Nova Scotia Health and based out of one of the health authority’s public health clinics in Halifax.

Nova Scotia Health would not make anyone available for an interview and provided a statement that did not say why the popular offering is coming to an end.

No matter the reason, Lerman said she’s disappointed. The sentiment is shared by Britney Benoit, who researches infant feeding.

Benoit, an associate professor of nursing at St. Francis Xavier University, said there are “glaring gaps” in access to breastfeeding support in all regions of the province, and that the need for support is “very, very common.”

“I think there is an assumption that breastfeeding is easy, it's natural, but it's absolutely not,” Benoit said in an interview.

“It is something that can be challenging, that requires really extensive hands-on physical support to breastfeed in those early days,” she added.

Benoit’s description of scarce access to help and the critical need for it is reflected in national statistics on breastfeeding. According to a 2022 report from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Nova Scotia lags behind the national average in breastfeeding rates in the first six months after birth. 

Benoit said there’s a strong body of evidence showing that exclusive breastfeeding in those first six months has significant health benefits for both mom and baby.