Submission

The Best Start Resource Centre

The Best Start Resource Centre is a provincial resource centre serving Ontario's maternal, newborn and early child development community. A program of the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse, the Best Start Resource Centre is funded by the government of Ontario to conduct activities in four main areas:

Training

The Best Start Resource Centre conducts interactive workshops and training that builds skills and holds an annual conference on maternal, newborn and child health that addresses current issues, highlighting theory and practice. Participants come from public health, community health centres, midwifery practices, CAPC/CPNP, early years centres, family resource programs and other community-based organizations.

Resources

The Best Start Resource Centre designs and disseminates resources that help service providers plan and deliver effective programs, often through collaborative efforts with other organizations and experts. Materials range from fact sheets, brochures, and posters to reports and program planning guides and are available at a nominal cost within Ontario.

Information

The Best Start Resource Centre is a clearinghouse that responds to information requests from the maternal, newborn and early child development community. The Best Start Resource Centre operates a listserv, with over 700 members, where information is requested and shared widely.

Consultation

The Best Start Resource Centre provides consultations to programs, in English and French by phone, email, fax or in-person throughout Ontario. Consultations are tailored to the specific needs and interests of the organization or community seeking help.

The Best Start Resource Centre is pleased to respond to the call for input and urges the Commission to strongly consider the issues of breastfeeding and pregnancy in the workplace. These are important workplace issues as well as being human rights issues and attention paid by the government of Canada sends a strong, progressive message to other levels of government and to the private, non-profit and voluntary sectors.

Breastfeeding

The Best Start Resource Centre sees breastfeeding as a health promotion activity that must be supported in the workplace because it provides optimal benefit to both mother and newborn. Research tells us that breastfeeding is a critical factor in healthy development of the newborn and contributes to lifelong health. The Best Start Resource Centre strongly recommends that the Part II of the Canada Labour Code strengthen, through legislative and non-legislative ways, breastfeeding in the workplace.

Best Start notes that Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991 and has made public commitments to its children in meeting the standards set in it. The CRC recognizes that child health is a key determinant of health and requires support and promotion by individuals and governments. In its follow-up Plan of Action in Response to the May 2002 Untied Nations Special Session on Children, Canada identifies as priorities for action the development and strengthening of child- and family-friendly policies and the promotion of health:

Policies within the workplace, the community and the larger social environment structure our daily lives as citizens. Understanding the way in which children and families are affected by the policies we design and implement is crucial. Policies that are child- and family-friendly are defined by their ability to support children and families where they live, learn, play and work. Such policies provide opportunities for social inclusion and participation in community life. (Canada, 2004, p. 42).

We will … take action on the factors and conditions that have been shown to influence the health of populations (Canada. (2004), p. 50).

Pregnancy in the Workplace

The Best Start Resource Centre believes that the Labour Code must recognize that pregnant women have a right to a safe work environment. Modifications to the working conditions for pregnant women are also a right but current legislation requires women seek out and ask for accommodations. Women should not put in the position of needing to ask for alternative and safe accommodations - the employer must proactively re-assign the worker, ensuring a safe environment or provide protective leave. Serious potential risks to pregnant women in the workplace include (but are not limited to) standing for long periods of time, heavy lifting, exposure to chemicals such as solvents, pesticides and heavy metals, and exposure to extreme heat and x-rays.

In addition to working conditions, a pregnant worker must have accommodation rights in attending prenatal and other related appointments during the workday without penalty.

Recommendations

The Best Start Resource Centre notes that many of the formal submissions to the Commission make recommendations related to breastfeeding. We support the following recommendations made by:

• Moms for Milk Breastfeeding Network
• Balancing Work and Family Alliance
• Breastfeeding Committee for Canada

1. Include paid breastfeeding and expressing breaks in the revised Part III of the Canada Labour Code, following the standards set by the International Labour Organization Convention 183 and Recommendation 191.
2. Ensure access to private, clean and appropriate areas for breastfeeding and expressing in the workplace.
3. Ensure flexible work arrangements to accommodate a workers role of mother and reversing the onus from the worker to the employer with regard to reassignment of duties that may be hazardous to a pregnant or nursing worker (including flexibility in attending appointments during work hours).
4. Implement a workplace education and awareness program for employers on the benefits of breastfeeding in the workplace and to workers right to breastfeed.
5. Support a public education and awareness campaign that highlights positive cultural attitudes towards breastfeeding in general and in particular in the workplace.
6. Increase access to the one-year maternity and parental leave for those women who may not currently be eligible.

The Best Start Resource Centre urges the Commission to also review and consider adapting for implementation the "Seven Point Plan and Practice Outcome Indicators for the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding in Community Health Services". While designed for health care facilities, the seven points are transferable to any workplace. The Seven Point Plan can be found at the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada website http://www.breastfeedingcanada.ca.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the consultation. We look forward to hearing the results of the consultation process and to improved legislation and non-legislative mechanisms that reflect current research findings that demonstrate the importance of a healthy pregnancy to both mother and child.

Sincerely,