Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join the Chairman and others in thanking Bainne Beatha and Cuidiú for being here this morning. I have read the witness statements and I thank them for all the work they are doing. Overnight we heard the positive announcement by the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, of €1.58 million to hire an additional 24 lactation consultants for hospitals. I am also really delighted to hear that the Government accepts the WHO guidelines that will see a phasing out of the in-your-face marketing and advertising of formula products. I believe this to be a good thing because a number of things are competing against each other here, including preparing for birth and getting ready, with all that this involves. There is also the fact that people are consumers. From a young age and from knee height we are bombarded with advertisements and all sorts of messages, be it from Smyth's Toys or Coca Cola. This gets inside our heads. We are brand people. We go to supermarkets and it has been proven time and again that we pick up items such as Brennan's bread, for example, and certain other brands because we stick with what has been marketed to us. I believe that the same applies to formula milks. We need to break away from that.

It is good that in the opening statements the witnesses from Bainne Beatha stated that it is not a "breast is best" group. This can often pressurise new mums who may feel they are doing something wrong by not breastfeeding and going the formula route. It is good that the representatives have said that the groups are there to support and find avenues of making this more feasible and possible.

I will jump into a few comments and then I have a number of questions. The first point is the obvious elephant in the room. We are discussing babies, birthing and breastfeeding. The real elephant in the room is that so many partners still cannot accompany the expectant mother to appointments at hospitals. We have had the political statements and I heard what the Taoiseach said yesterday. We have had a lot of talk from mums. Joe Duffy's "Liveline" covered this. Now we need each hospital group to standardise what they do around partners attending appointments. In general terms, but not in all cases, a woman who is expecting a baby is healthy. Giving birth is a medical condition but it is different to other hospital contexts in that the person is, generally, not unwell going into hospital to give birth. Of course there are cases where it happens but, in general, the woman is going in for a few days to give birth to a healthy child, hopefully, and to go home again. Those appointments leading up to birth are so important. We need to see some standardisation very quickly on this.

My next point is for Ms Cahill. I was absolutely shocked. One of my take-home points from her contribution is that antenatal classes have not been happening. I did not know that or understand that. This amplifies the whole problem I have just referred to where partners cannot attend some appointments with expectant mums. I am dad to three smallies - a six-year old, a four-year old and a two-year old. We went to the antenatal classes for the first child because it is the big unknown at that point. My knowledge of birthing was leaving certificate biology, a time when I would have been doodling in my copybook and not listening. Fast forward 12 years, however, and suddenly I needed to know all about this. My ears pricked up when they started talking about what would happen if we did not make it to the maternity hospital and if I as the dad had to help my wife to give birth at the side of the road. Suddenly, God almighty, a dose of reality of what may be involved was like a smack in the face. There has to be some capacity or some way, at least online, to address the lack of classes. We have all embraced Zoom. We are meeting today virtually. There must be some capacity to get those classes up and running, pretty much immediately.

Will the witnesses comment on if there is a need in Ireland for postnatal classes? Breastfeeding comes into that realm. As Ms Cahill and Ms Rea have said, when one goes to an antenatal class the focus is on how a baby is born and on the whole process from labour to birth and everything in between. Is there a need for postnatal classes? New parents have nothing to benchmark against. We phone sisters and brothers, or go to Google and get atrocious answers. We have people telling us our lives will never be the same again. This is just from my perspective as dad: it is way worse from the mum's perspective. There is probably a need, but not everyone will take it up, for postnatal classes. The same cohort that goes together to antenatal classes may be giving birth in and around the same time. It makes sense that the same service would be offered to them as a group after the births. Perhaps the HSE would consider that.

I was quite shocked to see Ms Etherton's analysis in her opening statement that 60% of mothers sought help and advice privately on breastfeeding. This is some 36,000 mums last year, at an average cost of €440 each, who left the net of our public health service to go and get this advice. This makes it even more important that the lactation consultants are hired.

On the points made by Ms Rea, as a person who has been in maternity hospitals a few times, I found that it is very hard to identify who is who. They are all wearing scrubs. I remember going down corridors and tapping a person on the shoulder, but they could have been a cleaning attendant, kitchen staff, an obstetrician, or someone on their way down to deliver an antenatal class. It is very hard to identify people. Identifying who is the lactation consultant could be a very simple thing each hospital group could do. It is very hard for a person who is not in a hospital every day to see who is who in that context.

That more or less covers it. Could the witnesses respond to some of those questions? I encourage them to keep up the great work. I wish all expectant mothers the very best over the months ahead. Hopefully, their partners can start attending appointments with them.