Dr. Cathal McCrory:

Breastfeeding is stigmatised. Thankfully, society is losing this but we need to continue to challenge the idea that there is something wrong with breastfeeding one's child. Breastfeeding is normative. We need to promote the message that breastfeeding is normative. The evidence seems to suggest that breastfeeding is best for the child not just in the context of obesity. It reduces the risk of respiratory infections and so on. A bond develops with the mother and child as a result of breastfeeding. The evidence shows that if the grandmother of the child has breastfed, the mother is 237% more likely to breastfeed. That reinforces the importance of the knowledge. It is having the knowledge within families and we need to develop that. The baby-friendly hospitals initiative, or at least, the work we did with Growing Up in Ireland, suggested that by the time a woman left hospital, if she was in a baby-friendly hospital, she was more likely to breastfeed at this juncture. It was not sustained so that shows that we need to continue to support breastfeeding beyond that initial 48 or 72-hour window until a lady is discharged from hospital. It was with concern that I noted that the baby-friendly hospital initiative has ceased. Funding for that has been withdrawn. I know there are steps towards this but we need to urgently consider implementing a new breastfeeding framework to encourage breastfeeding in this country.