A campaign to improve breastfeeding rates has begun in the Mid-Western Health Board. Research from the region has shown the number of mothers breastfeeding their babies in parts of Limerick and north Tipperary has fallen below the national average.
Dr Tessa Greally, a public health specialist with the board, said a policy booklet had been issued to health professionals.
"Any advice that a mother gets in the midwest is co-ordinated. She is not going to be getting different advice from different services, which was the real bugbear for a number of years," she said.
Research carried out by the board in 1997 found that just 18.5 per cent of mothers in the Newcastle West area of Co Limerick chose breastfeeding as an option at the birth of their child.
Breast milk provides greater protection for babies against infections and allergies and the risk of cot death.
For the mother, there is a reduced risk of certain cancers, and breastfeeding helps a return to normal weight after delivery.
The average rate of 34.2 per cent for the midwest region is broadly in line with the national rate, according to Dr Greally. But the rate rapidly declines following the child's birth, and at four months just 12.7 per cent of mothers were breastfeeding.
The national target, set in 1994, was to have a breastfeeding initiation rate of 50 per cent by the year 2000, with 30 per cent of mothers breastfeeding their child up to four months.
"Places like Norway have gone up to over 90 per cent. Australia is very, very high. Rates in a lot of European countries are much higher than ours," Dr Greally said.
A total of 339 mothers took part in the survey. Area-specific measures will be necessary to increase rates, according to the board's strategy document of 1999.
Dr Greally said a new logo, which appears on the board's posters and shows a young mother feeding a baby, was deliberately chosen so the picture would not look too Madonna-like.
"That is something a 17 or 18-year-old girl out the country or in Moyross would not identify with," she said.
Younger mothers are a category being aimed at in particular. Older mothers and those who have continued in education beyond the age of 18 are more likely to breastfeed, as are non-smokers.
"Mothers who had finished full-time education at more than 20 years of age were five times as likely to breastfeed as those who had completed fulltime education before the age of 17," Dr Greally said.
The board has also decided to lead by example by setting up a programme to enable female employees who have returned to work after maternity leave to continue to breastfeed. Dr Greally said that although initiation rates were growing, many mothers stopped breastfeeding very quickly because of the social pressure of returning to work. "We felt that we could not call on private companies to do it unless we did it ourselves."
A dedicated room has been provided in six hospital centres to allow mothers to store their milk during "lactation breaks".
"Mothers who return to work can avail of an additional half-hour break each day to allow them to express their milk, store it and bring it home for their baby's use. So it is possible to go back to work even with our very limited provision of maternity leave in Ireland," Dr Greally said.
Outside of that, the board is pressing for public buildings to provide facilities for breastfeeding mothers, approaching the local authorities, new retail outlets and Iarnrod Eireann, which has agreed to provide facilities at Limerick's Colbert Station. Brown Thomas in Limerick has been first to take up the challenge and has installed a special room as part of a refit.