Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for their informative presentations. I asked my friend who works in the medical circle many questions on this topic and gave them my thoughts on the matter as breastfeeding is such a raw and lived experience for people, not one of which I have direct experience. I cast the net far and wide, and the responses were revealing. People mentioned two areas when I told them that this meeting was coming up. There was the issue of support for the person who wishes to breastfeed her baby and the need for structural supports that support continued breastfeeding.

I commend my colleagues in Fórsa on the campaign for breastfeeding rights for special needs assistants, SNAs, that equal those enjoyed by teachers. While we are talking about a breastfeeding strategy and stuff there is a huge role to be played in terms of the wider population and workplace to properly support anyone who wishes to breastfeed and express their milk.

One of the questions that arose, and I wonder whether it is something that the witnesses have come across or had a huge amount of discussion on, is the provision of breastfeeding and supports for mothers who have chronic diseases. Many women with conditions like Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or Lupus must take very strong medications, including immunosuppressants, but would like to breastfeed.

There is now an accumulation of evidence that the benefits to mother and baby outweigh any risk of the baby's immune system being suppressed by the minuscule amount of drugs that cross into breast milk. Do the witnesses have any thoughts on that? The person I spoke to said women should be supported to breastfeed through counselling and adjustments to the vaccination schedule for babies. Some live vaccines may be best deferred in babies being breastfed by mothers taking certain medication. Is it something that has ever arisen for the witnesses?

I will throw the questions out and they can answer them. This is quite an unusual format. Sometimes we ask questions in a pow, pow, pow format to try to get juicy answers. The witnesses represent an advocacy group which is doing incredible work. This is a very pleasant format in which to be able to converse.

There is a human donor milk bank in the North. Are there any commitments towards developing and funding such a bank in the Republic? The phrase used was "human milk is for human babies", yet it seems mad to me that we do not have such a facility and people instead have to go to the North.

We talked about hospital grade pumps. A woman told me she would love to see the option of one free visit at home from a qualified IBCLC and the continuation of care at home. We discussed workplaces. It would be great to amend the regulations to allow mothers to take breastfeeding or pumping breaks for up to one year post birth. The current regulation allows for such breaks for up to six months. Many people shared many thoughts with me and I do not want to leave anything out.

Some of the people I spoke to said they felt they were being aggressively marketed formula through algorithms and stuff like that, as well as through their own spheres, friends and so on. Would I be correct in saying that Ireland is quite poor at enforcing the WHO code on marketing formula? Lots of events are sponsored by formula companies.

People said there is a wider cultural problem. The generations before us were sometimes discouraged from breastfeeding. Do the witnesses have any experience of what needs to be done to address what is being passed down through the generations? It is an eternal cultural problem and not one that exists solely in our hospitals. I have thrown a bazillion thoughts and questions out there.