Background
Methods
Recruitment
Sample
Participant | Age (years) | Tertiary level education | Number of children | Age of child when returning to work while continuing to breastfeed (months) |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | 38 | Yes | 2 | 8 |
B | 34 | Yes | 1 | 8 |
C | 36 | Yes | 1 | 7 |
D | 33 | Yes | 2 | 9 |
E | 34 | No | 1 | 6 |
F | 24 | No | 2 | 8 |
G | 33 | Yes | 2 | 7 |
H | 36 | Yes | 1 | 8 |
I | 34 | Yes | 1 | 10 |
J | 35 | Yes | 1 | 10 |
K | 34 | Yes | 2 | 6 |
L | 40 | Yes | 3 | 11 |
M | 33 | Yes | 2 | 6 |
N | 36 | Yes | 2 | 11 |
O | 36 | No | 2 | 8 |
P | 33 | Yes | 2 | 9 |
Analysis
Results
Culture
P: Definitely the feeding in public, so, when, when I was breastfeeding (Baby), I bought a poncho, that was specifically designed to put over the baby while you’re feeding because I was genuinely really uncomfortable feeding in public. I felt like men would look away and they would be really embarrassed and I, kind of, got sick of having to leave the room every time we had family and friends around because, you know, I’d be missing out on all the banter while I’m upstairs feeding (Age 33, breastfed for 12 months).
N: I don’t know. I wasn’t in that situation much really. I, yeah, I think I probably was a couple of times. I said, for break, I’d say, ‘Would you mind if I go first?’ and like, I suppose, it’s not, I didn’t really feel like it was much people’s business. I started in a new area as well. All to reduce hours. So, really, I didn’t know them as well and I had to, you know, it’s not that I’m a very private person but I suppose it’s my own personal thing and I think feeding them to that big is your own personal thing as well. So, I suppose, I just didn’t, kind of, want everyone, I think I might’ve said it to one or two (Age 36, breastfed for 17 months).
H: “This country really needs to change its attitude towards breastfeeding, it really does, you know the health factors and everything, and I don’t know why it’s hidden, you have to feel embarrassed and hide it” (Age 36, currently breastfeeding).
L: Our attitude to breastfeeding is very poor sometimes and I think that women who do breastfeed and continue to breastfeed beyond six months, kind of, feel a bit alienated. I certainly did…I just, kind of, felt that I was holding a bigger baby now and people felt that, people around me felt that, you know, now that I was, the baby was on solids, would I not switch to formula and, you know, I’ve done my job, what would I want continue to breastfeed for? I just found a negative attitude when I was feeding a bigger baby than a smaller baby…we are just so slow in our attitude changing with breastfeeding. It’s painfully slow.Ridiculously slow, I don’t see any huge difference between when I started 8 years ago and now (Age 40, breastfed for 22 months).
Supports and information provision
J: I’ve always done my own thing anyway, I like to think that I’m not easily influenced by people or I am not like that, but it has you know, there is only so much that you can listen to of “oh he’s still hungry, how can he still be hungry?, are you ever going to put him down? He needs to sleep in his cot” there is only so much of that crap you can listen to before you get really angry and it bothers you (Age 35, currently breastfeeding).
F: I have had friends whose public health nurse was a lactation consultant and she turned around to them and said your baby is not putting on weight you need to go to the shop and get formula, that’s an even bigger let down I think. And she’s a public health nurse who charges (Euro) € 75 an hour for a consult like, but as a public health nurse like she is pushing formula (Age 24, currently breastfeeding).L: I know, like, plenty of other instances where the, where they could’ve been turned off breastfeeding by just going to the GP and your GP is supposed to be your, your first port of call in the community (Age 40, breastfed for 22 months).F: Being a new mother I didn’t know what to do, and I was like “when do I feed him? What do I do?” and the midwife said “oh yeah, one second” and she went out of the room and she came back with like 4 different bottles of formula and she was like” Which one do you want?” and I was like, “no no, I want to feed him myself” and she literally stuck his head on my boob and then just walked away (Age 24, currently breastfeeding).
C: The only family I really had any contact with was my mum and she was really supportive of breastfeeding but I would definitely have got comments from (Partners’) mum, and that have been quite detrimental to our relationship, we don’t talk now (Age 36, currently breastfeeding).J: I can’t say it didn’t have an effect on me, it made me very sad that my relationship with my parents in law has suffered greatly because I breastfed (Age 35, currently breastfeeding).
H: I do think you need your husbands or partners support, if you don’t have their support on it, you won’t stick with it, because there are such tough times with the growth spurts and they happen so quickly and they go on for so long, I mean at 8 days I thought I’d never get out of the chair, and it was great that he was there, he could bring me water and sandwiches and food and take her to change a nappy and then bring her back again. Nothing can prepare you for that, no matter how much research you do, no doubt, you do need partner support (Age 36, currently breastfeeding).M. I think, if people had support, more support from the professionals and also from within their families, it would, it would probably make a lot of difference to people even, even starting, never mind carrying on…I think that people are very, very social creatures and I think they need support from other people. They need to be encouraged all the time that what they’re doing is a good thing, that it’s not weird (Age 33, currently breastfeeding).
Returning to work
E: It annoys me, it annoyed me that I felt under pressure to get her on bottles, I felt really pressurised a month before I was going back, I remember I felt under pressure the month before, because she still was very finicky with the bottles, very finicky, I felt pressure yeah, I felt it, I knew it, I knew it in my own heart and soul she was in trouble if she would not take the bottles, trying to explain that to my employer, saying, I can’t come back to work because I’m breastfeeding, I feel, I’m an alien to him basically, I just, like he’s a man in his, what? Late 50s maybe, I just don’t think he’d understand (Age 34, currently breastfeeding).M: So, that was the thing that really worried me about going back was, like, well, I don’t want to be just starting her on solids and throwing her into formula and all of that and, you know, kind of, worry about her nutrition and all that kind of thing but at the same time try to manage a job and actually a new job, I’ve started a new work. So, there was a lot of things to try and juggle…I was very upset by it and he was, he was 7 months at that stage because I actually weaned him way before because everyone kept saying to me, ‘Oh, you don’t know if he’ll take the bottle’, and, you know, ‘You really have to push it onto him’, you know, all this kind of stuff…So, I forced him into it before he was probably ready and, yeah, it was very upsetting for me. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t think he was ready either but I, I did it anyway. So, I would have much preferred to have carried on especially since I was only working 2 days a week…It was just a lack of information on my point or even just a lack of understanding that I could carry it on (Age 33, currently breastfeeding).
E: I got to the 6 months and at the 6 months she had to have the bottles during the day because I had to be at work, I asked work before I went back actually could I start at 10, I used to have to be in for 9.15 so I asked them could I come in for 10 because she was still feeding in the morning so I had to feed her in the morning before she had the bottle at 10 or 11 o’clock. So I asked them, and they were fine with that, there was no problem, I literally cut back my hours to do it (Age 34, currently breastfeeding).G: Yeah, I was demented now from it to be honest, it was a huge relief in one way when he decided to take a bottle, really felt a pressure being lifted off me, then there was another side of it where I felt a bit bad for him that he was missing out, like there was another few weeks of goodness left in me that he lost out on, but I suppose I had no choice (Age 33, breastfed for 10 months).
G: Well I told my manager, I rang her a week or two before I went back to work, they knew I had taken the 6 weeks unpaid, tried to get the child onto a bottle but I rang her a week or two before I was due to go back and I told her I couldn’t get him onto a bottle and I would still be breastfeeding when I went back to work and I would have to pump during the day. They said that was fine, no problem but there is no such thing as anyone coming to you and saying “look you go away now and take your break to pump”, it wasn’t like that, it was like well you can fit it into your own day. Oh, Oh my God, it was terrible, it was so upsetting, you know when, you know the only way I could describe it was that I was totally and utterly consumed with this issue, oh Jesus, I was actually losing my mind (Age 33, breastfed for 10 months).P: I think it’s definitely, it has to be a personal choice. I’m not sure there’s anything you can do to, you know, like, several of my friends would’ve said they would like to continue but it’s not possible at their work. So, one of my friends is a teacher. And there was just nowhere in her school that she could have some privacy to pump (Age 33, breastfed for 12 months).
Feeding in the workplace
E: I couldn’t like, it literally would not have been worth my while to go back on, I mean losing the hours until 10 o’clock killed me as well, every hour counts at the end of the day you know, it did you know like, but I didn’t have a choice in doing it, yeah, because I couldn’t afford to take the 16 weeks [unpaid leave], there was no way (Age 34, currently breastfeeding).B: I suppose it is a lot of stress then going ‘God I have to go and pump now’ so in terms of legislation I think two things, I think ideally maternity leave being longer. The reason why I’m going back earlier this time is, because the state pays so little. But this time round, financially, I’m gonna find it hard to even take the 6 months to be honest so my plan is to do a day or two a week, maybe when the baby is around 4 months (Age 34, breastfed for 20 months).
I: better facilities and maybe a room, going to the toilets is not on, it’s not hygienic and it’s embarrassing (Age 34, breastfed for 2 years).F: No, there is the canteen and the office in work but I’ve been told I can use them but there is not a specific breastfeeding room with a lock on the door like. I have to put a sign up, there is no actual lock on the door so I put a sign up and put a heavy chair behind the door so no one can actually open it (Age 24, currently breastfeeding).
G: If there was something that was there in black and white and you could say look, listen lads, it’s down her in black and white and I am entitled to go for 20 min, two or three times a day or whatever it is there is definitely more of a backup for you that you can say I’m entitled and you can forget their tut tut tut “where are you going?”. So like I used to pump at work but where I would have liked to pump twice a day at work I only ever got to pump once a day and at that it was a case of “oh, where she’s off to know with her pink bag?” it was, it was comments like and I am sure they were talking about me behind my back (Age 33, breastfed for 10 months).
O: Now, he didn’t speak to me himself. He got, like, one of his team members to speak to me about it, just organising everything and she asked about where would I store the milk and I said, ‘Well, I’m just going to put it in the fridge. So, you know, don’t worry about it.’ Because I thought she was asking out of concern for me, and where I was going to store it and she said that himself had basically said, ‘Oh, he’s just concerned that some people might have, you know, a bit of an issue with breastmilk being stored in the fridge.’… So, a lot of people that are pre-empting their employers, ‘I won’t ask because they’re just going to say, ‘no’, and then it might be embarrassing or it might be annoying’, whereas if they were to just say, you know, there’s no legal requirement after the 6 months (Age 36, currently breastfeeding).
C: I mean my son was 2 weeks overdue, and obviously I was off for the 2 weeks before he was due so I was off for nearly a month before he came, and then really I would have had to go back when my 26 weeks was up and he would have just been gone 5 months old. It’s not long enough, really not long enough. And paternity leave is non-existent, so what do you do? (Age 36, currently breastfeeding).I: Legal protection for women to feed after their return to work, I work in a private company and they have no obligation to allow me to take breaks to pump or feed (Baby) if it was a legal right I would be much more confident in saying it to my boss, I am taking the break I am entitled to feed my child, if it’s the law you have full protection, if it is just up to the company you are at their mercy, and they have all the control, but if it’s your legal right you have protection. Just one more thing, the maternity leave is not long enough here, the baby is still feeding constantly when you have to go back to work so it is not possible to feed for 6 months (Age 34, breastfed for 2 years).