The first week of August marks World Breastfeeding Week, which aims to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. Globally, Ireland has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates, with just over one third of mothers breastfeeding their newborn when they leave hospital and fewer than 6% of babies still breastfed exclusively at 6 months old. In this episode, broadcaster and "accidental" breastfeeding spokesperson Aoibhinn Ní Shúillebháin speaks to Róisín Ingle about the lactation supports needed for mothers, the world-wide marketing ploy that is follow-on milk and why the government need to fully fund and implement the National Maternity Strategy and the National Breastfeeding Action Plan in Budget 2022.We’re also joined by maternity care campaigner Emma Carroll, who set up the Facebook page In our shoes: Covid Pregnancy to highlight the unfair restrictions placed on expectant mothers and partners in Ireland’s maternity hospitals. Carroll tells Ingle about her own experience of giving birth in a pandemic, about the stories she’s hearing from other mothers and why she says it’s unacceptable that you can have a meal in a pub with your partner but must go through the maternity process alone.
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