Despite some advances with creches and college services, student mothers in Ireland are still hampered by the absence of a cohesive support system, writes Laura Fergusson.

In her second year as a theology student, Libby Charlton went to the Trinity Ball. Unable to find an evening dress large enough, she wore a tuxedo. Three days later, she gave birth to her daughter, Hannah.

"I had a completely normal student life," Libby insists now. After that summer she returned to Trinity College, took her exams, and continued with her degree. Eight years on she is about to qualify as a barrister.

Libby admits this would not have been possible without "a big support system". Her classmates were so excited by the "class baby" that some accompanied Libby to antenatal classes. Although she split from Hannah's father during her pregnancy, he has always been fully involved and has looked after his daughter for three days a week from the very beginning, allowing Libby "three days to pursue my own identity".

When she was studying for a post-graduate law diploma through evening classes, Libby's brother would drive after work from Dublin to Kildare to look after his niece for three hours.

Knowing that the on-campus creche at Trinity College had a notoriously long waiting list, Libby registered when she was just two months pregnant. A place became available when Hannah was six months old, and Libby says that aside from it being heavily over-subscribed, the creche is "the kind of place you'd choose to leave your baby, even if you could afford to leave them elsewhere. They were always very adaptable to the child, and saw them as individuals, which other places don't always do."

Libby put herself through college with a series of jobs in bars, and received a lone parent allowance of €186 per week. She admits that a degree, a baby and a job required "tons of energy", but says, "when you have a baby you become far more disciplined". She lived in Trinity Hall - the college accommodation in Dartry near Rathmines - throughout her time as an undergraduate, and applied successfully for a family flat there. In her third year she was awarded a bursary, which covered her rent.

She admits to having been "extremely lucky with Trinity", saying "every effort was made to keep me happy". However, she believes it is in everyone's interest to encourage student parents to complete their education. "It's a really stupid idea not to make it easy for students to go back. I'll be a barrister in six months, paying lots of taxes. It makes economic sense."

She hopes one day to be able to set up a similar bursary to the one that helped her, because, "if I achieve what I want to achieve it'll be at least 67 per cent down to Trinity".

Michelle O'Shea (26), and Sharon Kirkpatrick (27), are hoping to provide a similarly positive experience at UCD. The two met when Sharon interviewed Michelle for a report on single parents as part of her social science course. Talking to each other, they realised how much it would help to get to know others in their situation. They began the UCD Parents' Society in 2004, as a support group. The society now offers seminars and speakers on child psychology, as well as social events both with and without the children. It primarily serves to provide mutual support and to give student parents a voice on campus.

Sharon, whose son Jamie was four months old when she began her degree, says, "It can be very isolating. You don't know if you're going to fit in - you can't go out drinking."

Michelle, who returned to college when her daughter Amy was three, admits, "I was really scared about coming back. I'd been at home with Amy for three years; she was all I could talk about."

Michelle says she would have begun her course earlier had she realised there was help available. Living on unemployment benefits, she hadn't known that such things as the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) existed to enable her to go to university.

She says slightly angrily of the welfare system: "They only tell you what they have to."

Sharon adds that this lack of publicity applies elsewhere. Although she says her lecturers as individuals have been "falling over themselves to help", structured forms of assistance are under-advertised. She mentions a note-sharing facility at UCD of which she was unaware until her third year, which would have been a welcome back-up when she was forced to miss classes.

"It's run through the disability department, but it should be for anyone who's at a disadvantage. I could have done with extra tuition too, I missed so much. There's stuff there, but no one points you in the right direction."

Stephanie O'Brien, welfare officer at Trinity College Students Union (TCSU), is anxious to ensure that Trinity students know what assistance is available to them. But while she is keen to help everyone who needs it, she cautions: "We're trying to split a pot of money as wide as it will go. The more you publicise things, the more people come out of the woodwork."

Benefits, and the difficulties of acquiring them, are a recurring theme. Grants are the subject of particular wrath, as they are offered on the basis of parental income, unless the student is over 23. Many students receiving no financial support from their parents do not therefore qualify, as they are too young.

Another problem is that different benefits are provided by different sources. "You have to deal with too many people," Sharon Kirkpatrick says. "There's no proper cohesion." Sharon herself suffered from the gaps in the system when she moved house and her lone parent details were lost. Emergency payment was provided through her local welfare officer but she had to collect it in person, meaning she missed a year's worth of Friday classes - effectively an entire course.

Sharon is adamant that lone parents should automatically be offered the Back to Education Allowance. "Education should be promoted much more. Your life shouldn't be made more difficult. How are you supposed to better yourself?"

Both TCD and UCD subsidise the cost of their on-campus creches, but the minimum cost is still €100 a week. This represents a dramatic increase over recent years. Sarah, a 23-year-old UCD student says: "If the creche cost what it does now when I started college, I couldn't have come."

Both colleges are trying to expand the facility - Trinity is looking at making feeding and changing rooms accessible to those without a full-time creche place, while UCD is considering building a second, non-profit creche.

Stephanie O'Brien says firmly: "If we're going to welcome people back we have to have facilities available."

Amanda Piesse, senior lecturer in English at Trinity, is heavily involved in making life easier for student parents. Her own son, now 18, was born during her final year at St John's College, Oxford, where she says they could not have been better looked after. Her college had only accepted women students for four years, and Amanda believes they were therefore determined to be as accommodating as possible, "and prove they could do the girl thing".

Despite being single, she was given married rooms at the same cost as her existing room in college, which was covered by a grant. New options were created for her work to be assessed, tutors offered baby clothes and buggies, and friends begged her to go out so that they could babysit. Her son became the "college baby" and was something of a celebrity at a recent reunion.

Amanda places the credit for her academic success on her son being born when he was. "I don't think I'd have done as well if I hadn't had him. Everyone had been so supportive, I didn't want to let them down."

Exhaustion and time are issues that come up frequently. Sarah says: "I don't even have time to brush my hair in the morning," while Niamh (24) laughs: "It's scandalous; we all go to bed about nine!" Amanda, however, claims that she found being a student mother easier than being a working mother becausethe hours are more flexible.

The practical help of others is invaluable, and individual kindnesses are remembered long after the event. Libby reminisces about friends taking it in turns to push Hannah around in her buggy during classes before a creche place became available. Amanda describes a tutor who removed her own child from the college creche and paid for an expensive alternative, in order to give the place to Amanda's son.

The UCD Parents' Society was clearly touched by the Students Union arriving at its Christmas party with presents for the children. Although some parents mention the frustration of classmates not understanding their situation, they say that once the difficulties are pointed out, most people are anxious to help.

Sharon describes a meeting at UCD to discuss possible college spending, where all the advocates of better sports and theatre facilities were slightly shamed by her request for help for parents. "Everyone said 'I never even thought about that'," she says.

Kids and college Figures to study

UCD Parents Society was set up in 2004 and has about 50 members.

TCD, UCD, UCC, University of Limerick and NUI Galway all offer on-campus creche facilities, providing places for 40-70 children. Cost ranges from 80-200 per week, but many colleges offer some form of subsidy.

The Back to Education Allowance is available to anyone over 21 who has been on unemployment or one-parent family benefits for the previous year.