Barbara Pal is a first time mother of a spirited, energetic little girl. She joined MOBI after she was unable to overcome breastfeeding difficulties with flat nipples, weak or non-existent suck from baby, low supply, and breast refusal. She sought help from her midwife and a local Canadian breastfeeding expert, read books and tried tips from the MOBI list. She took herbs, domperidone, both pumped and manually expressed breast milk for her baby, supplemented with formula, and tried many techniques to woo baby to breast. In the end she was not able to get her baby to breast, but was grateful for all that she learned and tried, and was happy to provide all the breast milk she could to her baby.

Barbara’s interests center around social services and communication. She has an Arts degree in Psychology and Mass Communications. She has volunteered at Media Watch, an organization that monitors the portrayal of women in Canadian media. For a year she volunteered on a crisis phone help line speaking with distressed callers. Barbara has worked in both publishing and the social services. When she finished university, she worked at a small liberal feminist magazine by writing articles, managing the subscriptions and the daily office duties. She then worked at a group of children’s magazines before switching industries. Currently Barbara works for the Province of Ontario as a welfare field worker, where her duties include helping families access disability assistance from the government, connecting them with other community resources, and investigating allegations of fraud.

Barbara’s passions include teaching and performing folk dancing, singing, reading, swimming, cycling, hiking, camping, visual arts, culinary arts and seeing the humanity in all people.