Campaign to raise breastfeeding rates

A new campaign to increase breastfeeding rates by 2 per cent a year over five years was set in motion yesterday.

It followed the first meeting of the National Breastfeeding Strategy Implementation (NBSI) committee.

The five-year action plan includes better hospital and community breastfeeding services for mothers.

Getting all maternity hospitals to take on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Baby Friendly Hospitals initiative is a key target which will help increase breastfeeding rates, according to Pauline Treanor, member of the NBSI committee and director of nursing and midwifery at the Rotunda Hospital

To achieve this WHO award, each maternity unit must educate all staff members on breastfeeding and draw up a written breastfeeding policy which includes rooming in [where the baby is kept beside the mother's hospital bed at all times], skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth and breastfeeding on demand. Formula milks cannot be on public display within the hospital. Currently, only five of the 22 Irish maternity units/hospitals have been accredited the WHO Baby Friendly Hospital award.

"The help and advice provided in the first three to four days of breastfeeding is crucial," said Ms Treanor. But with more and more women leaving maternity hospitals earlier, extra support in the community will also be necessary, she said.

"For instance, at the Rotunda Hospital, we want to extend the support given by community midwives to all mothers who leave hospital breastfeeding. Then, after five days, the public health nurse will take over the supportive role."

The committee also acknowledged that the peer support offered by voluntary breastfeeding support groups such as the La Leche League and Cuidiú, the Irish Childbirth Trust, is crucial. Offering paid peer support to women within lower socio-economic groups is a measure which would encourage this group of mothers to breastfeed, according to Maureen Fallon, national breastfeeding co-ordinator. Breastfeeding rates among women in higher socio-economic groups are much higher than those in lower socio-economic groups.

Currently, 36-45 per cent of women are breastfeeding their babies on discharge from maternity hospitals. However, this figure drops to 12-22 per cent of mothers still breastfeeding their three-month-old babies and less than 10 per cent breastfeeding their six- month-old babies. This compares with 90 per cent of mothers who start to breastfeed and 73 per cent of mothers who are still breastfeeding at six months in the northern European countries. The WHO recommends that babies are breastfed exclusively for the first six months of their lives.

Catherine Murphy, assistant national director of Population Health who chairs the new committee, said, "For the sake of our children's present and future health, we need to tackle the barriers to breastfeeding, to make it the normal and easier choice for the vast majority of families in Ireland."

The appointment of regional breastfeeding co-ordinators is another target in the HSE-funded initiative.