The Cap enfants Family Resource Centre, Prince Edward Island

The Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) began modestly in the Acadian French-speaking community of Prince Edward Island when it hired its first employee in March 1996. Then in 2000, CPNP funding resulted in the founding of the Centre de ressources familiales cap enfants (Cap enfants family resource centre), which, in addition to the CPNP, now offers the Community Action Program for Children. While the Centre is based in Wellington, it provides services and programs for French-speaking Acadian families throughout six PEI's regions: West Prince, Evangeline, Summerside-Miscouche, Rustico, Charlottetown and area, and Eastern Kings.

As part of the pre- and post-natal components of the CPNP, Cap enfants offers a variety of services, including group prenatal classes for teen mothers and older women. Because it is not always easy for women in rural areas to attend groups, the classes are also offered on an individual basis.

The Centre distributes nutritional supplements to low-income pregnant women, and the staff encourages them to eat properly so their babies are healthy and weigh at least 3.2 kg (7 lbs) at birth. Depending on the Centre's budget and the number of people who need assistance, staff members also distribute food-especially eggs, green vegetables (when possible), fruits, and cheese.

The most popular service-the one that engenders the highest rate of participation-is the Club Bébés en santé (healthy babies club). Parents with babies a year old or younger can attend meetings held every two or four weeks. Although the staff encourages fathers to participate, it is primarily mothers who come to the Centre with their babies and older children (for whom the Centre provides a babysitting service). For a half-hour at the start of each meeting, participants exchange news and discuss a variety of subjects. Later, the meeting moves on to baby-related topics, especially nutrition, safety, baby massages, and communicating with babies. Occasionally, resource personnel such as the Centre's nurse or psychologist will take part in the sessions; the librarian may also attend to suggest reading materials. The program includes physical activity, and participants are often invited to take walks with their strollers, usually on the Confederation Trail. Afterwards, participants prepare a nutritious meal together with the Centre's family worker.

The discussions during the meetings give these women much-needed support and encouragement, especially if it is their first baby. As program coordinator Léona Bernard points out, “they can meet and form lasting relationships with other women. It gives them a chance to talk about their babies and their experiences, because having a baby changes their social lives, and they need to break their isolation.”

In communities where francophones are a minority, young families live in isolation, a situation that can create health risks for both parents and children. “One woman told us how happy she was to be able to express herself in French, her mother tongue. And without a doubt, a happy mother makes for a happy baby, which carries over to the baby's health,” adds Ms. Bernard.

In collaboration with the Evangeline Community Health Centre, Cap enfants also set up a breast-feeding self-help group that meets once a month. Each meeting deals with a specific topic: for example, “Surviving the first months,” “Getting mom out of the house,” “Introducing solid food,” or “Breastfeeding: a community concern” (grandmothers were invited to attend the meeting on this latter topic). One activity called “A Celebration of Breastfeeding” was initiated following the group meetings and gave rise to a banquet and soiree for PEI's breastfeeding francophone mothers. Forty mothers attended the event in a welcoming atmosphere that included music, a breastfeeding theme song, and animation. It was also a chance to pay homage to one mother who had breastfed all of her fourteen children. The woman, said Ms. Bernard, sets a wonderful example that other mothers should be aware of. The evening was so unforgettable that the Centre's staff intends to hold another such event.

A project called Racine de l'empathie (roots of empathy) has just begun in the Evangeline region elementary school. The project, aimed at second-grade students, is run by a facilitator who recently invited a mother and her three-month-old child to take part. The students were thus able to get to know the baby and learn about its world. In particular, they learned about babies' development, their feelings, the respect they deserve, and how to communicate with them.

The Centre houses a resource library containing books, video cassettes, and a computer so parents can surf the Internet. Parents also have access to a toy library and a baby-clothes exchange service, and they can borrow articles such as breast pumps.

All of the services offered by the Cap enfants family resource centre as part of the CPNP are vital to Acadian francophone families of Prince Edward Island. Thanks to the support and encouragement provided by the staff and other participants, mothers gain confidence, resulting in a better quality of life for both themselves and their babies.