Meeting with Associate Health Minister Payne

On November 22, 2017, Jennifer House (co-chair CBMG) & Jennifer Peddlesden (Political Action Committee, CBMG) met with the associate health minister Brandy Payne.

We were requesting:

1) Funding of human donor milk in postpartum units. This would save money and health of infants who are supplemented instead with formula, when required. Formula fed infants have a much higher change of hospital re-admission.

2) Mandating the Baby-Friendly Initiative in Alberta Hospitals. Currently we have 3 hospitals designated Baby-friendly. BFI supports the health of moms and babies, when supporting moms to successfully breastfeed their babies in hospitals.

3) To be a part of Alberta Health Services Breastfeeding committee, which creates the AHS breastfeeding policy and use of human milk policies.

My colleague Jennifer Peddlesden also met with her MLA and UCP party member Leela Aheer about this issue. Ms Aheer was keen to move our initiatives forward.

Attached is a summary of our meeting and follow-up references for Ms Payne: