Madam, – Two comments on Victoria White's excerpt from her very welcome new book Mother Ireland, Why Ireland Hates Motherhood(Weekend Review, October 9th). First, playgroups are places where children can learn to be together. I think this is an important part of children experiencing co-operation and playing. The emphasis is on "play" because this seems the way children learn best. Play is the most stress-free and interesting method of learning. Playfulness is such a delightfully attractive part of intelligence, which can easily be "socialised" out of us as we get older. Listening to a committed play-group leader telling me lately how much her job has changed with the advent of curriculum-based playgroup organisation doesn't fill me with hope.
Playgroups began as the response of locally-based parents to the work of raising families. If, as Ms White is pointing out, playgroup organisation is to be simply another arm of the state in the business of trying to repair economic damage, then her addition to the debate on what sort of post Celtic Tiger a society we want is both timely and important.
Secondly, the way babies are born and mothers cared for are crucial to the development of a caring society. Institutional maternity care is woefully under-resourced, so that neither babies nor mothers have the support they need to undergo the birth experience. Recently-published statistics show that annually one in every 100 mothers encounters difficulties in hospital that should not be part of the experience. This confirms my view that, as a society, we do not place sufficient emphasis on making the experience of birth the very best we can for mothers and babies.
Birth is the most important event in our lives. To do it properly requires the best care and attention we can muster.
I was born, I’m a father and a grandfather, and an important part of my paid employment was dealing with mothers and babies. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If mothers are so important for the well-being of children, as Victoria White argues, why does she not argue for more of them in the Dáil? It is, after all, in the political arena where the real power is to be found and where changes can be made. – Yours, etc,