WOULD you take 'em out in public to feed your baby?

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world. And embarrassment and humiliation are huge factors, a study in the Coombe maternity hospital found.

Of course, no one should be pressured to breastfeed; a happy mother and baby are more important than anything. But bottle feeding is culturally accepted here, compared to the breast. Dietician Dr Roslyn Tarrant of Temple Street Hospital, author of the Coombe study, The Prevalence and Determinants of Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration in a Sample of Women in Ireland, found that most Irish women who breastfeed are over 35, educated to third level, with partners who encourage breastfeeding.

But, significantly, before they gave birth 94 in every 100 women had already decided between breast and bottle. Over in the US, meanwhile, medical researchers found that $13bn a year could be saved and almost 1,000 babies saved from death if most mothers breastfed exclusively for six months.

A statistical study by the US Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and others looked at the costs of childhood diseases whose risks were known to be less if mothers breastfed -- gastro-enteritis, childhood asthma, childhood leukaemia, etc.

According to authors Dr Melissa Bartick and business expert Arnold Reinhold, 911 child deaths would be prevented each year if 90 in every 100 US mothers breastfed for six months. If 80 in 100 mothers breastfed, 741 babies would be saved. In Ireland, just two in every 100 mothers breastfeed. (In Sweden, it's 97 mothers in every 100, in Norway 99, and in Denmark 98.)

Irish law allows employed mothers to take an hour off work every day to breastfeed in the first six months, under Section 9 of the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004.

But first -- wait for this -- you have to notify your employer in writing of your intention to breastfeed at work, and confirm this at least four weeks before the date you come back to work from maternity leave. Embarrassing! And it's not like anyone is really going to feel confident in sending that letter in these desperate times.

One of the tourists and migrants who posted to the 007b.com website for nursing mothers around the world wrote: "There are a few rare feeding rooms in shopping centres etc [in Ireland], but they are smelly, where you change baby nappy. I will not feed my daughter in a toilet!!"

Another wrote: "We stayed with my in-laws and was told that I had to feed him in our bedroom with the door closed." When a relative stumbled upon her, profuse and embarrassed apologies followed.

By contrast, a mother posting about Norway shrugged: "Breastfeeding in public places is nothing special. Nobody frowns on it; it's just not an issue."

Perhaps it is time for an Irish study of how much money would be saved if more mothers breastfed for six months, and if it is found to be good thrift, maybe it's time to give us some resources.

For more information go to www.breastfeeding.ie