The province of Manitoba's decision to cut the women's hospital lactation consultant program at HSC has drawn the ire of mothers in the City of Winnipeg.

The province is eliminating two full-time lactation consultant positions at Health Sciences Centre, and says in place of those, all post-partum nurses will be given the same training.

Brett Mann was one of the organizers of a rally held at the Legislature yesterday calling on the government to reinstate the consultant positions.

"I don't doubt that nurses can handle the knowledge and that sense of caring, but let's be honest: we know that nurses are often stretched very thin, which seems to be getting worse now under the current administration, and don't necessarily have the time to spend with new parents who are having challenges with breastfeeding and feeding infants," says Mann.

Janeen Stuve is a mother who was also at the rally. Stuve says she suffered from post-partum depression after giving birth to each of her children, and says having a personal connection with a consultant really helped her.

"Just to have that connection and work with that person, and have them fully understand what's happening with your new baby who you're really struggling to feed, or it's not working well -- going through, talking about some private parts -- for me, as a new mom, (with) what I was feeling emotionally, (it) really helped," says Stuve.

Stuve says the nurses in the hospital were "wonderful and caring," but she says the lactation consultants provided her with more information and more one-on-one support.

Event organizers says they've reached out to health minister Kelvin Goertzen for more information about why the program has been cut but haven't heard back yet.