Login Se connecter

Blog Archive

Blog Archive


International Women's Day

March 2015

Sunday, March 8th, is International Women's Day, and honoring that, here is some interesting information describing how breastfeeding empowers women.

The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) has published Activity Sheet 4, entitled Breastfeeding: A Feminist Issue. Breastfeeding is an important women's issue, human rights issue, and feminist issue, since it "empowers women and contributes to gender equality." Women are empowered by "asserting the value of both their productive and reproductive work." The document goes on to discuss, in detail, why women's groups should spend time and resources in support of breastfeeding campaigns and programs. Breastfeeding requires societal changes to improve the position and condition of women. It also confirms a woman's power to control her own body as well as challenging the male-dominated medical model and the business interests of artificial milk companies. Breastfeeding also challenge the media model of women as consumers, as well as the view of the breast as sexual. Breastfeeding encourages solidarity and cooperation among women at all levels.

In her commentary, Cindy-Lee Dennis (1999) reviews the professional literature regarding breastfeeding-related confidence levels. Studies have found that maternal confidence was the most significant factor influencing breastfeeding duration; low confidence levels in mothers led to a three-times higher rate of premature weaning and 4-5 times higher risk of breastfeeding "failure." Studies also show that low confidence levels are positively associated and predictive of breastfeeding duration.

The Locklin study (1995) found five major themes that affected breastfeeding confidence levels. The first, Discovery, makes the change from confusion and fear when initiating breastfeeding to discovery about maternal and infant capabilities and competencies, leading to motivation for continuing the breastfeeding relationship. Secondly, Connection, showed that once knowledgable, mothers began to trust their own intuitive powers, quickly taking pride in ownership of the process. The next step, Comforting, illustrates the awareness of the unique shared intimacy evolving between mother and infant. The health of their infants for long periods further heightened maternal confidence. The fourth step is empowerment, when mothers can internalize their newly gained confidence and make a decision to continue breastfeeding, thanks to their growing reliance on intuition and experience. Lastly, Telling, finds mothers with a consistent need to share their success with others.

By assisting mothers to breastfeed, you are increasing their own personal sense of accomplishment, intuition, and confidence to breastfeed. This affects not only the breastfeeding dyad, but the family, the community, nation, and world! What a fabulous difference YOU are making...keep it up!

Kathy Parkes, MSN-Ed, RN, IBCLC, FILCA
Course Tutor, Step2 Education
 

REF: 

Dennis, C. (1999). Theoretical underpinnings of breastfeeding confidence: A self-efficacy framework. Journal of Human Lactation, 15(3), 195.

Locklin, M. P. (1994). Telling the world: Low income women and their breastfeeding experiences. Journal of Human Lactation, 11(4), 285.

WABA. Breastfeeding: A feminist issue. Retrieved from ww w.waba.org.my/resources/activitysheet/acsh4.htm

 

Remember me Login Se connecter Logging in...
Your country information is auto-filled based on information from your browser, please update if necessary. This information helps us provide the most relevant information for your region. Submit Sending... Sent! Clear
Your country information is auto-filled based on information from your browser, please update if necessary. This information helps us provide the most relevant information for your region. Submit Sending... Sent! Clear

This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or make a purchase from https://step2education.com (the "Site").

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as Device Information."

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

  • "Cookies" are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
  • "Log files" track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
  • "Web beacons," "tags," and "pixels" are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.

Additionally when you make a purchase or attempt to make a purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number. We refer to this information as "Order Information."

  • Users who are undertaking a course as part of a group or organization have certain data tracked as part of the service we provide to Clients and Facilitators. This includes information showing if you have logged in and when, dates of completion and what and when particular study topics, resources and assessments were viewed and completed. We refer to this information as "Student Access Information"

When we talk about "Personal Information" in this Privacy Policy, we are talking about Device Information, Order Information and Student Access Information.

HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We use the Order Information that we collect generally to fulfill any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:

  • Communicate with you;
  • Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and
  • When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.

We use Student Access Information to provide accurate tracking to Users and Clients on completion and use of the courses, as well as for analysis on how to improve our services.

We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, with your employer who needs to verify your completion or progress of your studies. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site--you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative's ("NAI") educational page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance's opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info.

DO NOT TRACK

Please note that we do not alter our Site's data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

YOUR RIGHTS

If you are a European resident, you have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.

Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill contracts we might have with you (for example if you make an order through the Site), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to Canada and the United States.

DATA RETENTION

When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information and Student Access Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information. We are required to keep course completion records for at least 5 years in order to comply with certain accreditation requirements.

CHANGES

We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.

CONTACT US

For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at info@step2education.com or by mail using the details provided below:

5890 Monkland Avenue, #16, Montreal, QC, H4A 1G2, Canada

Last Updated: September 2018