The When You Need It breastfeeding app is now available for French speakers. The interactive app, which answers commonly asked breastfeeding questions, launched in January 2015.

It was created by a partnership of the Building Blocks for Better Babies Program; UWindsor’s Faculty of Nursing; the University’s School of Computer Science; and the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, with support from the Government of Ontario through Health Nexus.

The app provides new mothers with helpful diagrams, videos, and links to community resources in support of breastfeeding. It is designed to be interactive and fun to use, providing parents with answers to commonly asked breastfeeding questions and allowing them to track feeding, diaper changes and records of their child’s growth.

“The app’s been very popular and picked up really quickly,” says Mary Lou Drake, retired nursing professor. “Within hours of the initial English version launch, we had 60 hits from all over the world, including South America, Southeast Asia, England and Ireland.”

Development of the French language version was supported with additional funding from Health Nexus, with translation facilitated by the UWindsor’s Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and community partners fluent in French.

To ensure the French version used proper terminology for everyday users, Drake says it was tested by pregnant and breast feeding mothers from Place du Partage, a non-profit organization that supports the integration of francophone immigrants.

“When You Need It was specifically designed for woman who might be having difficulty establishing breastfeeding and maintaining breastfeeding until at least six months,” says Drake. “The French version allows us to reach out to a group of women who may be new to Canada and life in Windsor, in a language they are comfortable using.”

The app is available for Android and Apple products and is free for download on Google Play and the App Store.