Madam, - Breast milk is a perfect food for babies. Despite this breastfeeding rates in Ireland, at 36 per cent on discharge from hospital, are unacceptably low. They will remain so as long as breastfeeding in public is not considered culturally acceptable and breastfeeding facilities are provided behind closed doors.
In this, National Breastfeeding Week, I urge department stores, shops and shopping centres to provide comfortable chairs, designated for breastfeeding women, on shop floors and I urge women not to hide away when feeding their babies in this most natural fashion. - Yours, etc.,
Dr SARAH DOYLE, Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6.