Public breastfeeding draws complaints

THERE have been some worrying episodes where women have been discriminated against for breastfeeding in restaurants, hotels and shopping centres, national breastfeeding coordinator Maureen Fallon said yesterday.

The Health Promotion Unit of the Department of Health and Children receives one to two complaints from breastfeeding mothers every month that they have been asked to move or leave public service areas. “While research shows that most Irish people are very accepting of mother’s breastfeeding outside of the home, there have been some worrying episodes of discrimination in public services areas,” said Ms Fallon.

Breastfeeding mothers are protected under the Equal Status Act and the Equality Authority has dealt with a small number of cases where such women have been discriminated against in public service areas.

All of the complaints investigated by the authority have been happily resolved without having to be heard by the Equality Tribunal.

Speaking at the launch of World Breastfeeding Week Ms Fallon said it was important women realised they did not have to ask permission to breastfeed in public.

“We want women to understand that as long as they are happy to breastfeed in a public area the owner, manager or staff members - on their own behalf or other customers - are not permitted to ask a breastfeeding mother to use separate facilities or to ask her to leave the premises,” she said.

The Health Promotion Unit is also disappointed that just over 100 restaurants and cafés around the country have backed an initiative launched last year to support breastfeeding mothers.

Ms Fallon said they were hoping more eating establishments would support the unit’s Babies Who Lunch initiative by having a policy of welcoming breastfeeding mothers and facilitating them to feed their babies.

She also pointed out that more women would be opting to feed their babies in public because breastfeeding rates were increasing.

Around 45% of mothers are breastfeeding as a result of a State-backed initiative that is encouraging maternity hospitals to move away from a bottle-fed culture.

When the global Baby Friendly Initiative started in Ireland in 1998, less than 40% of Irish mothers breastfed their babies.

While mothers are encouraged to breastfeed for two years, around half stop when the child is around four months old.