Laura Behan received breastfeeding support from hospital staff and her public health nurse after her son Alex was born.
When Alex was two weeks old she put him on formula briefly while she took a course of medication, but she found it hard to return him to the breast afterwards. "My heart sank at the prospect of breastfeeding him again because it had been so sore, and he was doing grand on the formula." A few weeks after she stopped breastfeeding, Laura went to her first Cuidiú Motherlink meeting. "When I asked for boiling water to make up a bottle, nobody batted an eyelid. It was so reassuring to know they were totally accepting of whatever you decide to do."
Ciara Clancy contacted Cuidiú when she was expecting her first child, Eoghan. "A couple of my friends had breastfed and I knew it could be a little bit difficult. No-one in my family had done it so I wanted to get some support locally." When Eoghan was born, she found the hospital midwives supportive, but when she got home she became engorged, making breastfeeding difficult. She rang a local Cuidiú counsellor who helped her work out the solutions. Ciara also attended La Lèche League meetings, and breastfed Eoghan for seven months until she returned to work. She is breastfeeding seven-month-old daughter Méabh and finds she can support first-time breastfeeding mothers through her Cuidiú group.