Our mission

Community IBCLC care for all in Ontario

The visioN

To provide a fully funded safety net,

of IBCLC continuity of care, preconception through weaning,

to all Ontario families requiring lactation and infant feeding support.

Every family deserves the best start

Infant food insecurity in Ontario.

Formula prices in Canada have climbed nearly 84% since 2017, and about 30% in just the last two years, on Statistics Canada’s figures. Thunder Bay parents interviewed by CBC News described paying $90 to $120 a week.

Jessica Pope, CBC News, 14 November 2025: Desperate parents needing baby formula turn to online strangers as Canadian prices nearly double since 2017.

what breastfeeding support returns

IBCLC support is not a luxury, it is a critical health intervention.

The World Bank puts the global cost of promoting and protecting breastfeeding at an estimated $0.6 billion a year, against potential economic returns of about $30 billion a year over the next ten years — about $35 for every $1 invested. It estimates breastfeeding can help avoid over 800,000 child deaths and 20,000 maternal deaths globally each year.

Annette Dixon, World Bank, 1 August 2018: Breastfeeding: A Foundational Investment in Human Capital.

Building healthy futures together

The bill is the barrier.

Subsidized rate consults bring the cost down for local families. What we want is IBCLC support with nothing to pay out of pocket at all.

Getting there is not something a clinic does alone. We want to work with organizations and programmes that can reduce, or remove, the need to charge a parent for lactation care.

Ready to begin

The first community IBCLC pilot can start here.

Ontario does not need to build anything new to test fully funded community IBCLC care. The Ontario Breastfeeding Clinic is ready now.

Proven at scale. More than 17,000 consults across Ontario, fully funded, with an OHIP copay and at private rates, so a pilot has a baseline from day one.

Published and measured. OBC clinicians co-authored peer-reviewed research showing virtual lactation care works. The study was carried out at a previous clinic rather than at OBC.

Physicians and IBCLCs together. The OBC Physician Group and IBCLCs work as one team on medically complex feeding.

Training the next generation. The OBC Breastfeeding Medicine Program trains IBCLC students, referring providers and allied health professionals.

Every IBCLC on the team holds current certification and professional liability insurance, and care is available at home, in our offices and virtually anywhere in Ontario.

Talk to us about a pilot

Interested in being part of the solution

Let’s have a conversation.

Whether you fund care, are a physician or IBCLC who would like to join our team, or want our expert community lactation support in your community, we would like to hear from you. Thank you for your interest in helping more families in Ontario reach their feeding goals.