Last week, Dublin City Council (DCC) unanimously passed a motion by Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu that officially designated the city as Breastfeeding-Friendly and councilors also agreed that going forward, officials should work with stakeholders to make women feel more comfortable when breastfeeding their children.
However, an expert has warned that while the news is great, Dublin still has "lots of scope for improvement."
"Society has to help women who want to breastfeed", celebrating the news, Aisling O’Moore Cunningham from the La Leche League of Ireland said it is true that the public perception of breastfeeding in Ireland has slowly evolved in recent years.
However, the fact remains that Ireland’s breastfeeding rates remain very low compared to many other Western countries.
According to the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative, only 63.1 percent of babies born in 2021 in Ireland were breastfed. By comparison, 81 percent of British newborns are breastfed and 83 percent of babies born in the US.
But things are changing here in Ireland, says O’Moore Cunningham, and we need to continue to support mums so that they change even more.
“Attitudes have actually changed quite a bit over the years,” she told Newstalk Breakfast.
“It was kind of a no-no thing back then; while many mums often feel uncomfortable and feel unsure of themselves in the early days when they’re breastfeeding, it’s a much better environment than it was but there’s lots of scope for improvement.”
Ms O’Moore Cunningham said the change will only come about if society helps women who want to breastfeed.
Read more
“We will continue having one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world if we don’t put in proper supports to support breastfeeders,” she said.
“They need to feel comfortable when they’re breastfeeding, they need to not be discriminated against, they need to make sure there are proper facilities in place.”
Also speaking to Newstalk about Dublin’s recognition as a Breastfeeding-Friendly City was mum Mags Stacey, who reveals her eldest child was born in 2020, at the height of the Covid lockdowns, and that sometimes made breastfeeding that much more difficult.
“If you were out and about and needing to feed, you were caught on the hop needing to feed, there was nowhere to feed,” Stacey revealed, adding:
“So, I fed on steps outside buildings, I fed in between cars and footpaths, I fed at bus stops.”
But when her second baby was born a couple of years later, things were different.
“With my second I could pick and choose; there were coffee shops open if I was struggling. So, definitely a much easier experience with my second.”
Stacey says she hopes that Dublin’s new designation as a Breastfeeding Friendly City will “normalize breastfeeding a lot more” for women who feel nervous about feeding their child in public.
“The more people see it, the more it’s just an everyday thing. [That] gives women confidence that they’re doing the right thing for their baby and that people aren’t put off by seeing it.”
* This article was originally publicized on EveryMum.ie.
Comments