Despite all the evidence that breastfeeding brings many health benefits for mums and babies, Northern Ireland has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.
More than half of new mums want to breastfeed but many quickly stop and less than a third of all mothers are still breastfeeding by the time their baby is six weeks old. Women say they feel a lack of support and feel anxious when feeding in public. Mothers have the right to feed their baby anywhere, but we do not have specific laws in NI to protect breastfeeding mothers in public.
Creating ‘enabling environments’ is one of the ways we as a society can support new mums to feed as they choose. To improve public awareness about breastfeeding and encourage mums to feel confident in feeding in public, the Public Health Agency’s (PHA) ‘Breastfeeding Welcome Here’ scheme was introduced in 2005.
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Its latest member, Translink, joins over 800 members of the scheme showing support for mothers and helping to normalise breastfeeding. Making it easier for mums, especially in those early days, is vitally important.
The success of breastfeeding is a collective responsibility and should not be seen solely as the responsibility of the mother. Many women feel guilt and regret if they don’t meet their feeding goals but the ability to breastfeed is shaped by the environment in which she lives.
There is a broader responsibility of governments and society to support women through policies and programmes in the community.
As we look ahead to a new NI Executive in May, we call on the future Health Minister to honour previous Executive commitment to take forward legislation to promote and protect breastfeeding, including protection from relentless predatory marketing of formula that undermines confidence in breastfeeding.
Northern Ireland has taken positive steps to improve support for breastfeeding, including the PHA’s scheme, as well as the growth of in-person and online community support.
This week, Newry, Armagh, Belfast and Derry were named in the top 10 most breastfeeding friendly cities in the UK according to data from Bella Baby. While this is great news, there are still gaps and inconsistencies in breastfeeding support provision across the UK and the Covid pandemic has eroded many of the community supports and increased new mother’s isolation.
Scotland and England have made significant new investments in breastfeeding support but Northern Ireland has not seen the same levels of investment, despite having further to go.
Our mum-led unique, award-winning festival, Breastival, aims to support, normalise and celebrate breastfeeding as part of everyday life. We work closely with other organisations and individuals to normalise breastfeeding in Northern Ireland. This includes BirthWise, a grassroots movement of expectant and new parents and Code Monitoring NI, a group of parents and practitioners concerned about unethical marketing of breast milk substitutes in Northern Ireland.
We look forward to working closely with the next Executive and Assembly to commit to urgent action that recognises breastfeeding as foundational for lifelong health and for the crucial early years of a child’s life.
If you want to see improvements in breastfeeding protection, promotion and support, download Breastival’s Advocacy Toolkit by clicking here.
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Claire Flynn is a Board member at Breastival and leads on the organisation’s policy, advocacy and communications work.
To find out more about our work, please visit www.breastival.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @BreastivalNI.
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