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Dr. Britney Benoit: Better beginnings for babies and families
Helping set families up for success when they have a new baby is at the heart of Dr. Britney Benoit’s research, which is centred around building better beginnings for babies and families during this critical time.
Dr. Benoit, a registered nurse, researcher, and educator in StFX’s Rankin School of Nursing, is focused on improving early infant care through evidence-informed health practices, with a particular focus on breastfeeding support and the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI).
The BFI is a set of global standards designed to improve health-care environments for infants and families. It promotes practices such as skin-to-skin contact after birth, support during the transition home with a newborn, and breastfeeding support.
“That early time with a new baby is incredibly important. Breastfeeding is hard. It can be stressful for families, and not everyone has an easy time with it. I want to help set families up for success during a time that is a big transition,” says Dr. Benoit who notes every family should be supported to care for their newborn baby. “If a family wants to breastfeed their baby, they should receive the support to be able to do so.”
Today, her research focuses on identifying the barriers and facilitators that affect how healthcare systems support families. She works closely with partners across Nova Scotia and nationally to strengthen Baby-Friendly practices in both hospital and community health settings.
Among those partners are Nova Scotia Health Public Health and the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada. They are leading a quality-improvement collaborative to help public health teams implement the BFI’s “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding,” which emphasize parent-infant closeness and continuity of infant feeding support.
Dr. Benoit is also working with Nova Scotia Health to study how breastfeeding can be better used as a pain-management strategy for infants in northeastern Nova Scotia. This research aims to improve clinical practices and empower parents as active participants in their babies’ care.
CRITICAL IMPORTANCE
Her work comes at a critical time. While breastfeeding initiation rates both in Canada and Nova Scotia are high (often around 90 per cent) the recommended guidelines of exclusive breastfeeding for six months fall below global targets. Atlantic Canada has some of the lowest rates in the country.
“That highlights the critical importance,” Dr. Benoit says. “We know the benefits, but there are still gaps and inequities.”
Breastfeeding support is an equity issue, she notes. Access to resources and systemic support can vary widely. Certain families are enabled to breastfeed because they have more support. “I want all families to have that opportunity,” she says.
FUNDING PORTFOLIO OVER $20 MILLION
Already her work has earned significant recognition and awards. Her funding portfolio totals over $20 million, including $12 million as a principal or co-principal investigator.
In another significant achievement, in 2024, Dr. Benoit was one of 12 early career researchers from across the country awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Health System Impact Fellow, joining the fellowship’s first cohort (2024-28) and embedding her research directly within the healthcare system. Through this award, Dr. Benoit, in partnership with Nova Scotia Health, focuses her work on improving perinatal and neonatal health care in rural Nova Scotia.
“I love studying why things happen,” she says. “I love working in partnership with health systems, understanding why and how we implement change.”
Helping support families is something grounded in both her research and in her lived experience. Dr. Benoit grew up surrounded by maternal and child health care. Her mother is an Internationally Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and a perinatal nurse whose career is in women’s and children’s health. Now, as a mom herself, Dr. Benoit also noted even as an expert in this space she wouldn’t have been able to breastfeed her own child if she didn’t have access to hands-on skills support. “Everyone should have access to that kind of help.”
ACADEMIC PATH STARTED AT STFX
Dr. Benoit’s academic path began with an undergraduate degree in human nutrition at St. Francis Xavier University where a course in maternal and child nutrition led by Dr. Doris Gillis further sparked her interest in breastfeeding research. Dr. Gillis later became her honours supervisor and she credits Dr. Gillis and that experience with opening her eyes to the opportunities to have impact in health research.
After StFX, Dr. Benoit pursued both a Master of Science and a PhD in nursing, immersing herself in research centred around breastfeeding. Her graduate work examined how effectively breastfeeding can reduce infant pain during painful procedures and how Baby-Friendly practices can be implemented in neonatal settings.
Dr. Benoit joined the Rankin School of Nursing in 2019, where she teaches perinatal nursing and nursing research.
Dr. Benoit also brings her research into her teaching and mentors the next generation of nurses. She has supervised numerous honours students in maternal and child health and finds it rewarding to watch their careers unfold.
“I had incredible mentors,” she says. “I want to pay that forward.”
What excites her most is seeing research translate into real change and seeing the impact on practice and families. “If I can do work here, understanding ways to help improve practices…that’s what really excites me, to influence change in the health system.”
