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Breastfeeding support for mums from bump to birth and beyond
Today the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA) launched a new DVD to help support pregnant women with breastfeeding. The resource, ‘From bump to breastfeeding – following real mothers’ stories to find out how’, provides an additional source of support to mothers who are considering breastfeeding their baby.
The DVD is part of a unique UK initiative and it is being launched today in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The idea for the DVD came from breastfeeding charity Best Beginnings and is being funded by the four government health departments. This new DVD resource will be available free to all pregnant women over the next year and will be evaluated.
Local mum Linda Thompson is one of nine mothers to have a starring role in the DVD, which explores the women’s expectations and concerns as they prepare to have their baby, their experiences of learning how to breastfeed and the places they go to for support. The primary objective of the DVD is to encourage mums to breastfeed, influence the importance of breastfeeding and ultimately help increase breastfeeding rates.
Janet Calvert, Regional Breastfeeding Coordinator at the HPA, said: “This resource will appeal to all women who are having a baby as it follows ordinary women from different backgrounds on their breastfeeding journey and addresses hopes and concerns that are relevant to all. The DVD is quite unique in that it shows real mothers and their stories about breastfeeding. We hope that watching this DVD will help women learn a bit more about what breastfeeding is like and if they are unsure about how they are going to feed their baby will encourage them to breastfeed.”
The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months with continued breastfeeding up to two years of age yet in Northern Ireland only 14% of mothers are still breastfeeding at six months.¹ Recent figures have shown that 9 out of 10 mums give up breastfeeding before they want to.² While almost all women can breastfeed given the right help and support, many give up early because they have not been shown how to correctly position their baby for breastfeeding and as a result they may develop problems with milk supply or experience unnecessary pain.
The event has the firm support of Michelle Gildernew MP MLA, who has been a strong advocate for breastfeeding mums over the years. Today proved no exception when she spoke encouragingly to the audience about her own experiences of breastfeeding. Ms Gildernew is the first minister in Ireland and the UK to give birth while in office.
The DVD has been produced in partnership with a wide range of professional bodies and voluntary organisations involved in maternal and child health issues. The Royal College of Midwives has had a key role in promoting the resource. Shona Hamilton, Chair of the Northern Ireland Board of the Royal College of Midwives, said, “Only with accurate information and practical support can there be real choice for families about how to feed their babies. Midwives clearly have a pivotal role with this initiative as the DVD will be given to women by midwives at their first visit antenatal visit and will then be discussed again later in the pregnancy. It gives mothers time to make an informed decision during pregnancy about how they think they will feed their baby and most, if not all, will be able to identify with at least one of the mothers featured in the resource.”
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Notes
to the Editor:
There will be a media facility on Monday 3 November 2008 at the Stormont Hotel, Belfast between 11.45am – 12.30pm when Janet Calvert will be available for interview. Michelle Gildernew will also be available for photographs, as will local mum Linda Thompson, who stars in the DVD.
25,000 copies of the DVD will be distributed to pregnant women here. This initiative has been funded in Northern Ireland by the Investing for Health team of the Department of Health of Health Social Services and Public Safety. It will be supported, implemented and evaluated by the HPA.
For media enquiries contact:
The HPA Press Office on Tel: 028 9031 1611.
¹ Infant Feeding Survey 2005 commissioned for Northern Ireland by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
² Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Northern Ireland health and social wellbeing survey 2006. Belfast: NISRA, 2007. |
