Mom and family programs waver when parents may need them most as WECHU pivots amid pandemic

Limited resources during the pandemic have forced the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to offer less supports for new moms and families over the past two years. 

Redeploying staff to fight off COVID-19, whether it be for case and contact management or mass vaccination clinics, has meant pulling resources from other programs the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) offers. And according to WECHU CEO Nicole Dupuis, one area that has gone through significant "ebbs and flows" has been the Healthy Families Unit.

According to the health unit's website, the department offers the Healthy Babies Healthy Children and Reproductive and Early Child Health programs, which support women during the pre-natal stages and as their child grows. 

They also have a Child Health team that offers services including breastfeeding support, developmental and nutritional screening clinics and parenting workshops. 

Before COVID-19, the unit had 40 staff members, Dupuis told CBC News in an interview.

But at one point during the pandemic, she said it dropped to as low as four staff members as nurses were pulled to fill other duties. 

"Anecdotally, we certainly know the parents we are connecting with and able to talk to are dealing with ... bigger concerns certainly and a lot more vulnerability than they were prior to the pandemic," she said. 

"[Staff in the unit were] trying to just really answer calls from parents and new mothers, certainly expecting parents ... and try to navigate them to the right information." 

Dupuis said they've slowly been trying to build back the unit's capacity. 

With it's breastfeeding programs, Dupuis said they preserved what they could, but still the health unit went from having three lactation consultants to one. Despite seeing breastfeeding as a "really important need" in the community, Dupuis said they aren't delivering that service in the "scope that we once did." 

She added that outreach and education were really scaled back and breastfeeding clinics haven't been taking place. 

When pandemic measures eased, Dupuis said they did schedule one-on-one consultations with moms. 

Dupuis said they won't truly know the impact the loss of these services has had until the pandemic is under control, but new mom Meetty Abraham experienced it firsthand. 

Abraham became a first-time mom days before the pandemic hit in March 2020. As a recent immigrant, Abraham said she doesn't have any family nearby and knew she would need support.