Martha Paynter

Registered Nurse, President of the Board Wellness Within

  • Halifax NS

Access to abortion, prison abolition, criminalization and reproductive health

Contact

Media

Social

Biography

Martha Paynter is the founder and chair of Wellness Within (WW), a registered non-profit organization in Nova Scotia that works to advance reproductive health, social justice and prison abolition. She is a registered nurse practicing in abortion and postpartum care. Ms. Paynter holds degrees in economics and health research. She is a PhD Candidate in Nursing at Dalhousie University, where she holds funding from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and studies reproductive health and criminalization.

Industry Expertise

Political Organization
Women
Research
Public Policy
Health and Wellness
Non-Profit/Charitable

Areas of Expertise

Health Services Management
Feminist Health Advocacy
Childbirth
Breastfeeding
Pain Management
Medication
Infant Feeding

Education

Dalhousie University

PhD

Nursing

2023

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar
CIHR Banting Best Scholar
Canadian Nursing Foundation Scholar
Killam Scholar

McMaster University

M.Sc.

Health Research Methodology

2007

Fellowships:
Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA) http://www.chepa.org/
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Dalhousie University

M.D.E.

Development Economics

2004

Thesis: "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: Challenging Health Protection in Canada"

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Affiliations

  • Affiliate Scientist IWK Health Centre Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Chair, Wellness Within: An Organization for Health & Justice

Languages

  • French
  • English

Media Appearances

When Halifax moms need human milk, they turn to Facebook

The Signal  

2017-01-19

When Denika Savoie’s daughter needed more breast milk than her mother could produce, Savoie knew she wouldn’t be able to count on her health care system to help her.
“We were told by the IWK Health Centre in Halifax that when a preemie baby reaches what would be 34 weeks gestation that donor milk is no longer provided,” she says in a email.

For the first month, Savoie could feed her daughter with her own milk and the help of donor milk given by the IWK.

But later, when her daughter was two months old, Savoie couldn’t supply an adequate amount of human milk to feed her. She knew from her prior interaction that the IWK would no longer be able to give her any. Looking for an alternative, a family friend suggested she ask a donor to send milk, by putting out a request to the group Human Milk 4 Human Babies on Facebook.

Human Milk 4 Human Babies is one of many human milk groups that operate mostly through social media. Any mother can join and ask for human milk or give their own human milk to mothers in need.

These groups operate on trust; donors are not screened and the milk is not tested. The donor and recipient often meet for the exchange and get to know each other. However, the donor is not liable if her milk has a disease that is transmitted to the baby.

Savoie says that a huge part of why she participates in her milk exchange group is to forge bonds.

“Within the week, I was heading out to meet an amazing mother who provided us with over 500 ounces of milk, as well I received milk from an old elementary school friend who was so happy to have seen the post and be able to provide milk for my daughter,” she says.

At the moment, Savoie and others in need of human milk are left by themselves to find what they need and assess the risk of using milk donated by a stranger.

Kathryn Hayward has been a long-time advocate for the implementation of a human milk bank in Nova Scotia. A professor at the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University, Hayward is part of the Breastfeeding Community of Practise. It’s a group that has been preaching the importance of having a milk bank is Nova Scotia since 2012.

“Because we haven’t had a milk bank here, a lot of moms, for altruistic reasons, want to donate their milk because they recognize the benefits of the milk to the child,” she says. Hayward says that, even with no milk banks in the region, mothers donate their milk and do it instead through online groups like Human Milk 4 Human Babies.

Even if a child fits the crit

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Sharing the milk of human kindness

CBC News  

2012-06-05

A group of women who share breast milk are hoping to see a more official arrangement at the children's hospital in Halifax.

Erin Burgess relies on other women to supply milk for her two children, Rowan and Wyatt. The twins were born two months premature to a surrogate.

"It is a constant search and asking and looking and asking and putting out requests," said Burgess.

Thankfully, she's found some new mothers willing to share their breast milk.

Martha Paynter produces enough milk to feed her daughter Freyja and the twins. Her extra milk is stored in bags, frozen and then donated.

"I'm able to nourish even more babies. That's really neat," Paynter said.

Sharing comes with safety concerns, however.

When Burgess looks for clean milk through a Facebook group called Human Milk 4 Human Babies, she asks the donors health questions. A milk bank would be different, she said.

"You would know exactly there are standards," she said.

The IWK Health Centre had such a milk bank, but it was shut down along with every other one in the country after the tainted blood scare in the 1980s.

Recently, there have been attempts to revisit that. Vancouver had a milk bank for a few years. Calgary opened one about a month ago.

Kathryn Hayward, a nursing professor at Dalhousie University, is chair of the milk bank working group. She envisions something like a blood bank for milk.

"When it comes down to sharing you are looking at the risks associated with the donor's lifestyle. So if we had a human milk bank we would screen for those risks. Our donor milk would go through Holder pasteurization, which is a flash pasteurization that is actually quite safe," she said.

Paynter said she's confident her donations to Rowan and Wyatt are safe.

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How to donate breast milk to the Calgary Mother's Milk Bank

You Tube  

2015-05-26

Instructional video

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Event Appearances

LEAF Halifax Persons Day Breakfast

LEAF Halifax Persons Day Breakfast  Saint Mary's Boat Club

2016-10-14

Articles

Health-care providers' views on pursuing reproductive benefit through newborn screening: the case of sickle cell disorders

European Journal of Human Genetics

2012

Newborn screening (NBS) programs aim to identify affected infants before the onset of treatable disorders. Historically, benefits to the family and society were considered secondary to this clinical benefit; yet, recent discourse defending expanded NBS has argued that screening can in part be justified by secondary benefits, such as learning reproductive risk information to support family planning (‘reproductive benefit’). Despite increased attention to these secondary benefits of NBS, stakeholders’ values remain unknown. We report a mixed methods study that included an examination of providers’ views toward the pursuit of reproductive risk information through NBS, using sickle cell disorder carrier status as an example. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 1615 providers in Ontario, and interviewed 42 providers across 7 disciplines. A majority endorsed the identification of reproductive risks as a goal of NBS (74–77%). Providers’ dominant rationale was that knowledge of carrier status is an important and inherent benefit of NBS as it allows people to make reproductive choices, which is consistent with the goals of disease prevention. However, some challenged its appropriateness, questioning its logic, timing and impact on disease prevention. Others were sensitive to intruding on individuals’ choices or children's independent rights. While the dominant view is consistent with discourse defending expanded NBS, it deviates from the traditional screening principles that underpin most public health interventions. Broader discussion of the balance between benefits to screened individuals and those to families and societies, in the context of public health programs, is needed.

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Health-care providers’ views on pursuing reproductive benefit through newborn screening: the case of sickle cell disorders

European Journal of Human Genetics

2011

Newborn screening (NBS) programs aim to identify affected infants before the onset of treatable disorders. Historically, benefits to the family and society were considered secondary to this clinical benefit; yet, recent discourse defending expanded NBS has argued that screening can in part be justified by secondary benefits, such as learning reproductive risk information to support family planning (‘reproductive benefit’). Despite increased attention to these secondary benefits of NBS, stakeholders’ values remain unknown. We report a mixed methods study that included an examination of providers’ views toward the pursuit of reproductive risk information through NBS, using sickle cell disorder carrier status as an example. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 1615 providers in Ontario, and interviewed 42 providers across 7 disciplines. A majority endorsed the identification of reproductive risks as a goal of NBS (74–77%). Providers’ dominant rationale was that knowledge of carrier status is an important and inherent benefit of NBS as it allows people to make reproductive choices, which is consistent with the goals of disease prevention. However, some challenged its appropriateness, questioning its logic, timing and impact on disease prevention. Others were sensitive to intruding on individuals’ choices or children's independent rights. While the dominant view is consistent with discourse defending expanded NBS, it deviates from the traditional screening principles that underpin most public health interventions. Broader discussion of the balance between benefits to screened individuals and those to families and societies, in the context of public health programs, is needed.

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Understanding sickle cell carrier status identified through newborn screening: a qualitative study

European Journal of Human Genetics

2010

The expansion of newborn screening (NBS) is increasing the generation of incidental results, notably carrier results. Although carrier status is generally understood to be clinically benign, concerns persist that parents may misunderstand its meaning, with deleterious effects on children and their families. Expansion of the NBS panel in Ontario, Canada in 2006 to include sickle cell disorders drew attention to the policy challenge of incidental carrier results. We conducted a study of consumer and provider attitudes to inform policy on disclosure. In this paper, we report the results of (i) qualitative interviews with health-care providers, advocates and parents of carrier infants and (ii) focus groups with new parents and individuals active with the sickle cell community. Lay and provider participants generally believed that carrier results were clinically insignificant. However, some uncertainty persisted among lay consumers in the form of conjecture or doubt. In addition, consumers and advocates who were most informed about the disease articulated insistent yet dissonant claims of clinical significance. Meanwhile, providers referenced research knowledge to offer an equivocal assessment of the possibility and significance of clinically symptomatic carrier status. We conclude that many interpretations of carrier status are in circulation, failing to fit neatly into the categories of ‘clinically significant’ or ‘benign.’ This creates challenges for communicating clearly with parents – challenges exacerbated by inconsistent messages from screening programs regarding the significance of sickle cell carrier status. Disclosure policy related to incidentally generated infant carrier results needs to account for these complex realities.

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