Sir, - Victoria White writes (The Irish Times, September 4th) that she's "bloody-minded" about breastfeeding. Good for her. Less so for those soon-to-be mothers considering the breastfeeding option. New motherhood is shocking enough without having to champion a cause. Victoria White's article suggests that by choosing to breastfeed mothers would be doing just that, faced with a health-care system that could not care less about their choice. So? Great cause, fewer champions.
I'm sorry her health-care experience has been so poor. My own - and that of many others - has been excellent. Mothers, take heart!
National Maternity Hospital: brilliant. Advice, active encouragement and expert attention from antenatal classes right through delivery to discharge and beyond.
Breastfeeding support groups: equally brilliant. There's an exceptional one in Blackrock.
Community care nurses: just wonderful. Full of encouragement, with endless tips, time and patience. Unstinting in number of visits.
Doctors: great initially, though strangely less so if you're breastfeeding to toddler stage.
In society generally people are, if not quite supportive, then at least neutral. There's no longer a stigma attached to breastfeeding (discreetly) in public - though feeding an older baby can evoke the kind of looks usually reserved for those suckling rabid dogs. Somewhat surprisingly, mothers who had themselves breastfed initially asked me if 18 months wasn't time to "cop on and be giving it up". The breastfeeding debate will continue apace. Tyranny does indeed reign, but it's not confined to that much-publicised ascent of the corporate ladder. The breastfeeding zealots who regard bottle-feeding as something approaching wilful neglect would do well to cool it. Their particular tyranny is giving the rest of us a bad name.
Regrettably, many breast feeding champions don't confine their interests to breastfeeding alone - they frequently extend, noisily and passionately, to other "campaigning" issues. But, prospective mothers please note: to be a breastfeeder, you don't have to be a crusader. Or, for that matter, a martyr.
Yes, much work needs to be done and change effected. And yes, breastfeeding can be tricky, even exasperating, at first. But don't be discouraged. The help and advice are there and it's a fantastic experience for mother and baby alike. The breastfeeding cause needs the moderates to "come out". Many have demanding jobs, thriving businesses and (for those at the other extreme who regard us as over-abundant, wacky earth mothers) reassuringly immaculate depilatory toilette. - Yours, etc.,
Miriam O'Callaghan, Killiney, Co Dublin.