Helping new mothers with breast cancer

I found it hard enough to cope with my own breast cancer treatment, without a family to look after. I wasn’t even married at the time, so I only had myself to take care of. I can only imagine the emotional and physical burden a diagnosis of cancer places on mothers, especially those with young families. I know of one mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with her baby and underwent the stress of chemotherapy in the final trimester of that pregnancy. Thankfully, she gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl, but while dealing with all the physical and emotional demands of a new born, she is also dealing with her ongoing cancer treatment. Luckily she has wonderful support from her large family and that is how she copes. Not everyone has this support and that is why I am so impressed with Toronto based Rethink Breast Cancer’s Support Saturdays initative. 

It aims to develop and implement a flexible family support program that allows breast cancer patients who have babies and small children to share their concerns about breast cancer in a confidential manner with peers and an experienced professional facilitator. This program ensures that new moms in treatment for, or recovering from, breast cancer who wish to link with peers and get professional psychosocial support, can do so easily and in a timely fashion.

To read more about this iniative visit this link at the Rethink website: http://www.rethinkbreastcancer.com/support_new_moms.html