As you walk through the door and into a WE (Women Everywhere) Breastfeed Café on a Wednesday afternoon, the scene that greets you is a bit different from a typical café. Strollers are parked neatly down the hall, just outside the door. Volunteers greet newcomers at the door and help them with coats, offer them something to drink, and play with children on the other side of the room. Parents cuddling babies are seated on the floor or in comfy chairs, chatting and sipping coffee or tea in safety mugs rather than classy ceramic ones. It is a welcoming and totally family-friendly environment.

After everyone has settled in, one of two volunteer facilitators opens the discussion. She introduces herself as a mom who breastfed her children and who has completed the three-day breastfeeding training that all WE Breastfeed peer volunteers are required to take. She goes on to explain that the role of peers is to provide information, practical support, and encouragement to other parents on common breastfeeding challenges.

After stressing that peers don’t address medical issues related to breastfeeding, but can refer parents to health professionals who do, she invites others to introduce themselves and voice any questions, concerns, or successes they may wish to share with the group. She notes that following the group discussion, there will be social time during which parents can chat with each other about how their week has been, and parents who need individual support can meet one-on-one with one of the two WE Breastfeed volunteers.

Parents open up about the challenges and joys of breastfeeding: trouble with getting a new baby to latch; how to know if their baby is getting enough milk and how to increase milk supply; the ease of being able to travel with a breastfed baby; the satisfaction of knowing as a teen mom, that you can do something for your baby that no one else can do – breastfeed him! Later in the Café, they connect over discussions about how demanding family life can be, how to get their toddlers to try different foods, and plans to meet the next day at the park. As much as they value the breastfeeding support, they also love the chance to connect with other parents and make friends in what can sometimes be a lonely world.

The WE Breastfeed Program at the Guelph CHC was initiated in 2007 and is modelled on a similar program, Breastfeeding Buddies, started out of the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre in 2001. Currently, WE Breastfeed has about 40 active volunteers who provide one-on-one telephone support, volunteer at two weekly drop-in Breastfeeding Cafes in two different areas of Guelph, and visit other programs throughout the city where mothers congregate, to provide information and support. In 2016, 152 different families visited cafes, and 82 mothers and babies were matched with volunteers for individual supports. We continue to evaluation both qualitatively and quantitatively the intended outcomes of the program.

While the goal of the program is to increase the initiation, exclusivity, and duration of breastfeeding, our commitment is to create a supportive and non-judgmental environment for infant feeding, regardless of feeding method, by providing accurate information and caring support for every parent and child.

Our volunteers and participants have experience with a variety of feeding methods, from formula feeding their first baby and then breastfeeding a subsequent child, to combined formula and breastfeeding, to pumping and bottle-feeding breastmilk. As one teen mom said, “The most valuable part of today’s Café for me was knowing I’m not alone and not judged.”