THE SMALLEST people on the North Shore will benefit from local initiatives under way in honor of Interna- tional Breastfeeding Week, which runs until tomorrow. By Anna Marie D’Angelo News Reporter Vancouver Breastfeeding Centre spokesman and lactation consul- tant Renee Hefti said future gen- erations will be healthier because of the initiatives. But the North Shore resident said, ‘‘We need more than mothers to be committed to breast-feeding, we need support by the community.”’ . The theme of this year’s Breastfeeding Week is to help make: workplaces and other areas of the community more friendly to nursing mothers. Hefti said businesses such as - Park Royal shopping centre are constructing parenting restrooms for their. patrons. The facilities provide mothers with a comforta- ble place to breast-feed babies. Meanwhile Lions Gate Hospital (LGH) has announced that it is becoming more baby friendly. Among the changes at the hos- pital wil! be 24-hour ‘‘rooming- in’’ of mothers with their babies. “We. felt the. rooming-in was one of the biggest changes we had to make. We took the big one ‘first,’ said Randi Enweani, LGH . maternity nursing director. She said the hospital is also relaxing its practice of separating ri - Age of baby when breast-feeding d out of 115 surveyed = Number of montis Be switching from breast-feeding to formula ofpier slatted breast-feeding 2 weeks fussy unsatisfied baby Baby weight concem 1 month’ 2 months Friday, August 6, 1993 - North Shore News - ore baby- friendly Int’ Breastleeding Week focuses on community support for nursing mothers discontinued & why Mom exhausted feBaby refused breast Decreased milk supply oflaby weight concern Baby not satistied family social concems olay ped ofeties tawork 4months | 3 months NEWS graphics Joan Pederson THE WORLD Health Organization deciared in 1989 that all newborn babies should exclusively receive breast milk until they reach four to six months of age. a mother and baby while the child is assessed. following a caesarean birth. “Yes, the baby will go to the special-care nursery, but it will be no more than four hours if everything is OK,’’ said Enweani. She said the hospital is working to have caesarean birth mothers recover in a labor-and-delivery room to allow family members to remain together. At the moment,a new mother recovers in the post-anesthetic room after the operation at LGH. ““We’ve actually made a change from about a year ago where caesarean-section babies stayed in the special care nursery for quite a bit longer,”’ said Enweani, Meanwhile, Enweani said the hospital committee decided to tenew its free baby-formula con- tract with Ross Laboratories for one year. She said the committee felt it didn’t have enough information to change its baby-formula contract. NV residential burglaries reduced by 53% in two years “AWESOME. TOTALLY awesome,’’ breathed seven- year-old Michael from 60 feet (18 m) up in a wobbly BC. Hydro cherry picker. By Martin Millerchip Contributing Writer “-.. Certainly the view across the - dusty bowl ‘of Mahon Park on ‘Tuesday night was an unusual one as police cars, bomb squads, am- -bulances,. motorbikes and fire ’ engines vied for the attention of at : least 1,500 children and their har- ried guardians. For the second year in a.row North Vancouver was celebrating a Night Out Against Crime with a fair-like party to show the kids a - good time while educating their parents about Block Watch and other community policing pro- grams. And with the city fire depart- ment’s hook and ladder truck fully extended into the clear blue yonder, the Hydro cherry pickers giving so many rides they overheated. and the RE/MAX hot-air balloon blasting off every three minutes, the mood was decidedly uplifting. Upbeat too were Block Watch civilian coordinator Cynthia Dewald' and area coordinator Nancy McKerracher. Their | six-person volunteer committee has worked since Feb- ruary to get the event off. the ground. But they are both quick to pay tribute to the 150 volun- teers and corporate sponsors who made Tuesday’s party a success. “It’s a much better turnout this year. Block Watch ‘is working, ’ people are participating and com- municating with the RCMP,”’ said ae Be a TS Ba AN N AERIAL view of the fairground atmosphere i in Mahon Park for the National Night Out event. McKerracher. North Vancouver RCMP Const. Marty Blais echoed McKerracher’ s remark. “The more people understand how to report'a crime, how police procedure works, the greater the benefit. “it doesn’t matter what name you give it. Block Watch or Stop- watch it’s the communication aspect that is the most imper- tant,” said Blais. Statistics support Blais’ convic- tion, that community involvement in policing nets results. Residential burglaries in North Vancouver are down 53% over the last 2 years while similar statistics in Burnaby and Surrey are on the rise. “I know for a fact that we have the most successful Block Watch program in the province, probably in the country,’’ said Blais proudly. Block Watch is a crime preven- tion program that operates by enrolling neighbor to help neighbor. Families on a block form a communication chain, watching out for each other’s homes and reporting suspicious behavior to each other and the police. Police provide home security, information, a property iden-' tification program and protective window stickers. Blais says that starting in September the North Shore will have a vastly improved ‘‘fan-out’” information system. A computer generated telephone system will be able to pass on not only general information to ali block captains, but separate messages for specific areas. If necessary, every Block Watch member in a given area could be alerted. Blais also wants to target the City of North Vancouver. While Block . Watch sign-ups have been running at about 300 a month, far fewer city homes take advantage of the program. There are approximately 1,500 “We decided to use the next year to collect data on how much we use, when we use it and also, perhaps, do some changes in the practice at the hospital,’’ said En- weani. But breast-feeding advocates maintain that hospitals should pay for baby formula, claiming new mothers pay in the long run as their babies are fed on formula at home. _ All groups acknowledge that breast milk is the superior food iefighters celebrate Block a 4&6 All hospitals in the province currently have free baby-formula deals. 99 for infants. But all hospitals in the province currently have free baby-formula deals. : Meanwhile North Shore Health (NSH) has just released a baby nutrition survey of 115 new mothers living on the North Shore whose infants were born in Oc- tober 1992. According to the survery, 95% of the women were committed to breast-feeding before birth, but only 28% continued the practice exclusively during their child’s first four months. NSH community health promo- tion director Dr. Nancy Hall said babies benefit by their mothers’ immunity when the infants are fed breast milk only. The World Health Organization” declared in 1990 that all newborn babies should exclusively receive breast milk until four to six © months of age. : The provincial government estimates that it costs $70 to $130 a month to bottle feed a baby. NEWS photos Brad Ledwidge POLICE CARS, ambulances and fire engines vied for the attention of the kids at the National Night Out Against Crime event held in North Vancouver's Mahon Park on Tuesday. residents of the city (pop. 37,000) signed up compared to 7,000 members in the district (pop. 76,000). Blais acknowledges the transient nature of some of the city’s pop- ulation, especially in Lower Lons- dale. “People feel if they rent, that responsibility stops at the doorstep. In the district people take possession of where they live. “It’s something we can try-to teach but it has to come from within,’ said Blais.