Health and Beauty with Denise McNamara

The topic of Ireland’s shockingly low breastfeeding rate has once again hit the headlines in the last fortnight with interventions by the President’s wife and chair of the Green Party.      We have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, with less than two thirds of Irish babies being breastfed at birth compared to 90% in Australia, 81% in the UK and 79% in the US. By the time babies are three months old that number has dropped to 31%.

Sabina Higgins urged maternity units to let new mothers spend a longer time in hospital learning how to breastfeed, rather than being “thrown out” after giving birth.

At an event at Áras an Uachtaráin to mark national breastfeeding week late last month, she called on the HSE to ensure that every midwife is a trained lactation expert.

Advertising and television shows was full of formula-fed babies instead of those being breastfed by their mums, she pointed out, urging the representatives from breastfeeding groups present at the launch to get a plan together and approach Government departments about it.

“Something huge really needs to be done,” she exclaimed.

Galway Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly brought a motion to the Seanad this week calling for improved education on breastfeeding along with advertising restrictions.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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