Breastfeeding support group Cuidiú defends ethos of 'supporting parents' 

Cuidiú has supported breastfeeding for 40 years, offering support groups as well as education classes. File picture

Breastfeeding support group Cuidiú has spoken out to defend its ethos of “supporting parents” in the wake of controversy over the use of the word 'people' on promotional material.

Cuidiú has supported breastfeeding for 40 years, offering support groups as well as education classes. 

This week, online commentators appeared to take offence at the use of 'people' instead of 'women' in promotional material for Cuidiú breastfeeding groups. 

The advert's only photograph is of a woman breastfeeding her child. 

In response, senior tutors from across all three sectors of the Cuidiú organisation spoke out to explain why they do this.

“Our ethos centres on supporting parents, wherever they are at, using evidence-based information about pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding in order to provide a supportive background to empower parents to make their own decisions that are right for their family,” the statement said.

“This informed decision-making is at the core of our breastfeeding and parent support models and is what makes our Cuidiú Antenatal Ireland classes different from others.” 

The group follows the HSE guidelines on inclusive language.

“The use of inclusive language has been encouraged so that no parent feels excluded from the support network provided by Cuidiú,” the tutors said.

This includes using plain English terms and avoiding medical jargon wherever possible. It also includes gender neutral terms such as chairperson instead of chairman, it said. 

Cuidiú aims to keep communications “kind, factual, and free of stereotypes across all digital and printed materials”.

It also aims to respect individual preferences when referring to people, including those with a disability or who are neurodiverse.

The intervention follows controversy over a male speaker invited to speak at a conference hosted by a different organisation, the Association of Lactation Consultants Ireland (ALCI).

The conference has now been moved online instead of in-person following a large number of threats to ALCI council members and to the hotel venue.

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The council described the nature of the threats and the volume as distressing enough to cause fear for their health and safety. 

It is taking legal advice on further action.

The speaker, Jacob Engelsman, is no longer on the programme and had been due to talk about supporting gender diverse families. 

Cuidiú said: “In the light of the very public print and social media debates following the ALCI Conference speaker announcement, Cuidiú wishes to re-iterate our mission statement and guiding principles.” 

It noted the organisation has over 25 branches with more than 300 volunteers and another 100 supporting volunteers.

“We are proud to have been supporting tens of thousands of parents annually throughout the country for the past 40 years,” the statement said.