Since 2015, the Breastfeeding & Child Nutrition Foundation (BCNF) has been a beacon of hope for mothers across Barbados, championing breastfeeding and early child nutrition. For the past decade, the nonprofit organization has been at the forefront of promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding in Barbados, a mission its co-founder and Executive Director, Dr. Alison Bernard, says BCNF is fully committed to and does not take lightly.
A Personal Experience that Sparked a Vision
Dr. Bernard credits her own experience with breastfeeding, both its difficulties and rewards, as the inspiration behind founding BCNF.
“It was challenging at first,” she recalled in an interview with Diabetes Today, “but because of the advantages I saw with my children in terms of health, my own health and recovery in the postpartum period, I wanted mothers and their children and their families to have those same advantages.”
On her return to Barbados from postgraduate training in pediatrics in the United Kingdom she was faced with the eye-opening realization that less than 20 percent of mothers in Barbados were exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months of the baby’s life.
“That’s a really critical period for growth and health for babies,” Dr. Bernard stressed, noting that breastfeeding has a key role to play in reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for about 84 percent of all deaths in Barbados. Additionally, she said few mothers knew that breastfeeding could reduce the risk of NCDs to themselves and their children.
“So, I decided to start the organization, whose mandate and whose aims were really about promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding across the island. We wanted to kind of bridge the gap between bringing the awareness of the importance of breastfeeding to the public, as well as providing the support that mothers were saying that they weren’t getting at that time,” the pediatrician added.
BCNF’s Mission and Mandate
Dr. Bernard added that BCNF’s mission is centered on ensuring that all mothers feel confident and equipped to breastfeed. What began as a three-person team has grown to include over 16 dedicated volunteers. This expansion has allowed the Foundation to launch a range of impactful community-based programs across the island. These include, she said, educational sessions for mothers in the hospital and community sessions such as pop-up outreach events; creating partnerships with healthcare institutions in the private and public sector including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; and the establishment of breastfeeding support groups.
“All of this is in an aim to help mothers feel more confident about breastfeeding. We also want them to have an enabling environment as it relates to breastfeeding. So, we work with private organizations to help build out breastfeeding-friendly workplace policies, which is obviously quite important. Women make up just under 50% of the labor force in this country, we spend so much time in and at work, so we need to have policies in the workplace that will enable mothers to continue breastfeeding even after they return to work,” she indicated.
Embracing Support Groups – in-person and virtual
Since 2017, BCNF has operated support groups, providing a safe space for mothers to discuss sensitive topics such as postpartum depression, sex after childbirth, feeding concerns, first aid and transitioning to solid foods. Dr. Bernard disclosed that over 400 mothers have benefited from these groups to date. Her comments came as she explained that the COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and restrictions, pushed the BCNF to pivot and host its support groups online to maintain its outreach to mothers. She stated that they have maintained the virtual support groups.
She added, “Because of the myths associated with breastfeeding, because of, perhaps misinformation, not intentionally provided, but provided by family members and the rest of the support system; it means that when mothers start on that journey of breastfeeding, they already have this conception often that they cannot breastfeed. They’re not thinking, ‘I’m going to give this a go. We’ll see how it goes’. No, they’re thinking, ‘Oh, I had five people who told me how hard it was and that they weren’t able to do it’. So, it sets up this idea in their head that they can’t. Through our support groups and having those interactions and mothers sharing stories with each other, and then when I get them in one-on-one consultations where we spend an hour, hour and a half, talking through what the issues are, and me practically showing them how to put the baby onto the breast. I think that has had a major impact on breastfeeding for the mothers that we have.”
Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures
With that in mind, she said that this year’s World Health Day theme, ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’, the start of a year-long campaign by the World Health Organization to promote maternal and newborn health, resonates deeply with the Foundation’s mission.
She indicated, “Breastfeeding is literally the cornerstone of maternal and newborn health. How you feed your child in the very beginning literally does set the path in that child and, indeed, that mother from that point onward. We know that breast milk provides fantastic nutrients and antibodies, protecting from life-threatening diseases. It’s the first nutrition, the first thing that babies put in their mouths; if it’s not formula, then it means it’s breast milk. And so, we contribute directly to reducing preventable deaths and enhancing women’s health postpartum, laying the foundation for healthier futures for both mother and baby.”
Looking to the Future – A legacy of care
Happy with their success to date, Dr. Bernard said that the charitable organization is looking to grow and welcomes the public’s support in improving the country’s breastfeeding statistics and the health and wellbeing of mothers and their babies. She said BCNF’s goals for the next three to five years include becoming the island’s go-to resource for breastfeeding and complementary feeding, the weaning of babies onto solid foods, which, if not done well, can lead to micronutrient deficiencies, expanding outreach and support services to more women, and advocating for the implementation of workplace breastfeeding policies.
“We want to enhance our education programs around complementary feeding and address the needs of toddlers and young children so that we can ensure that there’s continuity of care beyond infancy for these children,” she said.
