Bainne Beatha

We are hopeful of breastfeeding supports in Budget 2025, and want to thank Minister and Department of Health officials for meeting with us, the Oireachtas Breastfeeding Committee, this morning. Our group is a collaboration between , and Oireachtas members.

As we come close to Local Elections 2024, please talk to your candidates about how they can ensure breastfeeding is supported in your community. Along with other breastfeeding organisations, we have compiled the following list of key asks for candidates.

Give your #1 to the candidate who promises to be an advocate and ally for breastfeeding, ensuring an inclusive, supportive environment for all who wish to breastfeed.



UNICEF Ireland Cuidiú Breastfeeding Support La Leche League of Ireland Friends of Breastfeeding Baby Feeding Law Group Ireland ALCI / Association of Lactation Consultants in Ireland

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all our breastfeeding sssssupporters! ☘️

We are disappointed by the decision of HSE mychild.ie to stop increasing targets of those who are breastfeeding, as we continue to miss them - the increased rates of breasted babies at 3months indicate that the increased support might be working. Our research shows the need for lactation support within healthcare settings and wider community in order help those who wish to breastfeed. However this is still not universally available and we are concerned that by removing the goal of increased rates, the goal of increased support will be removed too.

Stephen Donnelly for Wicklow

HSE stops increasing breastfeeding targets, as they continue to be missed The targets were set out in the national breastfeeding strategy, which has expired.

Today is the World Breast Pumping Day. 1 in 10 of those who took part in our 2022 study rented a hospital grade pump. While the experience can be extremely stressful for some and pave the way for a premature end to breastfeeding, for others it can be the key that unlocks their breastfeeding journey and / or their only solution to poviding breastmilk to the their baby. We see you and advocate for better suppors for those on a similar journey!

Read more detail of experiences shared with us in our report below:

"I feel exclusively pumping allowed my breastfeeding journey to continue as long as it did."

"There should be more support and information for exclusive pumpers. It's very hard work."

Today, on Nollaig na mBan, as we take down the Christmas decorations and celebrate all that is great about the women in our lives, let's also celebrate the journeys mothers around us have taken to make the best choices for their children and themselves. We remind our friends, families, politicans, healthcare providers, workplaces and wider society that supporting women in how they choose to feed their babies (and for the majority that choice prenatally is breastfeeding) is a necessity in a functioning society.

From everyone at Bainne Beatha, we wish you a Happy New Year.

2023 has been an incredibly busy year for us. We have met with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, President Higgins, his wife Sabina and numerous politicians as part of the Cross Parliamentary Sub Committee on Breastfeeding. Our 2022 report was published in PLOS ONE, a reputable medical journal. We have taken part in the WBTi report, and we have engaged with, and listened to you, our wonderful community of breastfeeding supporters. We have done all of this with a small team, most of whom have been on maternity leave.

A huge thank you to our partner in crime Dr. Liz O'Sullivan, who works tirelessly with us across all initatives, and of course to our breastmate Councillor Deborah Byrne who moved onto pastures new during the year but remains our biggest supporter.

Have a wonderful New Year's celebration, and we look forward to continuing to advocate for increased breastfeeding supports in 2024.

Happy Christmas to all our supporters and followers. We hope you enjoy this festive season supported by the ones you love. Thank you for all the love and support you have shown us this year.

Ireland scored particularly poorly with regard to our implementation of the UNICEF Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative/ Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. This ties in with the results of our study from 2022. 0 of our 19 hospitals (both public &private) offering maternity services have been accredited for implementing 10 steps within the past 5 years.

The HSE is making some progress with the increased posts for lactation counsellors, more training for health care professionals and new 'National Standards for Infant Feeding in Maternity Services' published in 2022. Bainne Beatha asks that all hospitals are monitored going forward with regard to the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, that the voices of mothers are listened to and acted upon and the normalisation of formula feeding in maternity ward ceases.

Full report available here https://t.co/gGdUdO03Ac

Let's talk about rates. At Bainne Beatha, we steer away from discussions about breastfeeding rates, when so many who wish to breastfeed are being let down by the system. But it is difficult to discuss the WBTi report without addressing both our poor ranking in breastfeeding rates at discharge from hospital and the lack of reliable data on breastfeeding rates at later stages. 63% breastfed at first feed, 40% at 3 months (36% exclusive breastfeeding). (Source: IMIS). It is our firm belief that if we can improve supports within the first days after giving birth, Ireland's ranking could begin to improve in terms of extended breastfeeding rates. (This is backed up by CORAL study into babies born during Covid-19 lockdown). According to WBTi we score excellently in terms of policies, governance and maternity leave. We now need to put that into practise to help those parents who want to breastfeed.
Full report here: https://t.co/gGdUdO03Ac

The first World Breastfeeding Trends initiative (WBTi) report for Ireland was launched today. Chaired by Dr. Liz O'Sullivan, the work was coordinated through TU Dublin and UNICEF Ireland, with representations from many organisations including Bainne Beatha. WBTi has created a systematised reporting method that allows countries to assess and monitor the status of policies and programmes related to infant and young child feeding. We are relieved to see Ireland perform mid way in the rankings, but also not surprised to see that we have a lot more work to do, particularly around collecting reliable data, supporting mothers in healthcare settings and providing access to breastfeeding support and counselling service pre and post natal. This week, we will highlight some of the key findings and share our thoughts around how Ireland can improve it's ranking by providing better supports to parents who wish to breastfeed.

Full report available here https://t.co/gGdUdO03Ac



HSE mychild.ie Baby Feeding Law Group Ireland ALCI / Association of Lactation Consultants in Ireland La Leche League of Ireland Cuidiú Breastfeeding Support Friends of Breastfeeding University of Galway

Tomorrow morning, the World Breastfeeding Trends initiative (WBTi) report will be launched. This is the first time Ireland has taken part in the global initiative. Join the webinar to watch the launch of the results live Tuesday 28th November, at 10am. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wbti-ireland-report-launch-tickets-751610205357

We wish that today's budget 2024 listed more details on healthcare, specifically women's health, and reiterate our request to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly for Wickloww to honour his commitment to support breastfedeeing through increased staffing ratios in maternity hospitals, additional IBCLC roles, and funding for research.

We'll be eagerly awaiting the publication of the National Service Plan 2024 and will continue to liaise with the breastfeeding subcommittee on this.

Today we had the honour speaking as part of Sabina Higgins annual Latch On event in Arás an Uachtarain, which aims to raise awareness of low rates of breastfeeding in Ireland and increasing supports to mothers.

“Bainne Beatha, our campaign for improved breastfeeding support services in Ireland, is run by working mothers in our spare time, without funding or political affiliations. We support mothers who wish to breastfeed. The majority of mothers in Ireland initiate breastfeeding, but by the time they leave the maternity hospital couple days later, many are no longer breastfeeding.

To better understand why so many breastfeeding journeys end so early, in partnership with Dr. Liz O’Sullivan, from TU Dublin we have recently undertaken a study that reached over 5,000 respondents - thank you to all who promoted it.

The participant experiences described an under-resourced health system and inconsistent support during the particularly sensitive early period of establishing breastfeeding.

So far we have shared the key findings with wide range of stakeholders, including the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, and arising out of this presentation a Breastfeeding Parliamentary Sub-committee was formed. Together we met with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to advocate for increased breastfeeding supports and resources.

We also continue to run our social media campaign promoting breastfeeding support and our work.

Before I finish, I would like to thank Deborah Byrne, our founding member, who recently stepped down from Bainne Beatha as she has been co-opted onto Dublin City Council. Bainne Beatha would not exist without her.

I would also like to thank everyone here today for the campaigning that you have done since long before we existed - we stand on your shoulders and together will reach new heights.

Thank you to all the dedicated breastfeeding supporters, both professional and volunteer, who do such invaluable work. Finally, thank you again to Sabina Higgins for the invitation to speak today. I hope you will all agree when I say “Support is best”!”

We are over the moon to see the first research article from our survey undertaken with Dr. Liz O'Sullivan from TU Dublin published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The article is based on our survey carried out in 2022 which received an overwhelming 5,400 responses. Their responses outline how breastfeeding supports in Ireland were deemed often inaccessible because staff had no time, or the supports themselves were inadequate or unhelpful, and at times physically inappropriate.

Participants described how breastfeeding was well-promoted during pregnancy, but there was just not enough support to overcome challenges after the baby was born. Often, formula was offered instead of help with breastfeeding, which participants associated with a healthcare system that is under-resourced.

We will continue to bring the experiences of breastfeeding supports in Ireland to the politicians and policy makers and hope that more funding is allocated to improving breastfeeding supports in budget 2024.

Read the full report here https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0288230

With a mix of sadness and pride we are announcing that our founder and stalwart campaigner Deborah Byrne is stepping back from Bainne Beatha to take over Councillor Joe Costello's Dublin City Council seat for the North Inner City. She will be an amazing advocate for the area. You can follow her updates here https://www.instagram.com/deborahbyrnefyi/

At Bainne Beatha, we will continue our work with the Paliamentary Breastfeeding Sub-Committee, and look forward to meeting with Minister Stephen Donnelly for Wicklow again in September. There, we'll repeat our call for increased staffing in maternity hospitals, for more research into breastfeeding rates and supports and for updated breastfeeding promotion highlighting support and education.

Thanks to Roderic O'Gorman TD workplaces are now legally bound to support staff with breastfeeding breaks up until their babies are two years old 👏. We hope this empowers you to have a conversation with your employer as to how they create a culture and environment that is supportive of breastfeeding, beyond the statutory entitlement to time off. Please share if you have any stories or thoughts on what great workplace support looks like.

Yesterday Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly received our letter outlining the changes we believe are required in our health service to ensure those who wish to breastfeed have the supports in place to do so, reducing their trauma and improving their experience. With Dr. Liz O'Sullivan and the Parliamentary sub-committee on breastfeeding we asked for 1) increased staffing of midwives, lactation consultants and other breastfeeding supporters. 2) improved reporting of breastfeeding data, 3) an updated breastfeeding action plan, 4) increased promotion of breastfeeding through advertising and in schools.

To read the full letter we sent to Minister Stephen Donnelly click here ➡️ https://buff.ly/3OyRlVg

We support the call in Monday's Irish Examiner for more tangible breastfeeding supports in community and healthcare settings. 👏
https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41134465.html

You told us you wanted to hear more about breastfeeding supports in the community. Join us tomorrow Monday 8th May at 8pm for an insta live chat with Claire Coleman as she talks about her breastfeeding journey and how she found support in the community. Claire is a Cork mum of two girls (Sadhbh, soon to be 4 and Dara, soon to be 2) and is passionate about breastfeeding and breastfeeding support. She is a parent supporter with Cuidiu, and a volunteer peer to peer parenting supporter in her workplace parenting group. Ask Claire your questions here in advance, or live during the chat.

Today, 5th May, is the International Day of the Midwife. At Bainne Beatha, we celebrate the role of midwives and advocate that they are recognised and adequately resourced to provide the crucial early stage support required by those who wish to breastfeed.

One of our key asks when launching our report to the Women's Parliamentary Caucus was for the establishment of a Breastfeeding Parliamentary Committee. We are delighted to announce that a committee has been formed with Senator Pauline O'Reilly - Green Party Senator Marie Sherlock Violet-Anne Wynne T.D. Róisín Shortall and Senator Emer Currie.

Together with Dr. Liz O'Sullivan from TU and the Breastfeeding sub-committee, we have a number of requests for Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly for Wicklow to increase supports provided to families who wish to breastfeed in Ireland. Our requests include an updated breastfeeding action plan, breastfeeding metrics and increased staff resourcing and supports.

Link to full article in today's Irish Indepdendent https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/it-needs-to-be-treated-as-the-norm-call-for-secondary-school-students-to-be-educated-about-breastfeeding/a1905593522.html

We would love to hear some stories from the international community regarding your experiences of breastfeeding support here in Ireland - in hospital/ healthcare settings, the community and at home.

We would love to hear how they compare to what is offered in your home country, and what you'd like to see improved here in Ireland. Feel free to comment or DM.

Cathy is a mum of one boob-obsessed two year old girl. Professionally, she is training as an obstetrician-gynaecologist and was shocked when she was pregnant and realised how little she really knew about breastfeeding and how to support it. She is delighted to have been invited to join Bainne Beatha and have the opportunity to advocate to improve supports for women in Ireland.

Thank you very much to for the 'Initiative of the Year' and Deborah's 'Advocate of the Year' nominations. We are honoured! 💟