A local breast feeding counsellor believes more support is needed for mothers in the Longford/Westmeath area.
Ciara Reilly from Cuidu says while the HSE is putting resources into its breastfeeding campaigns, she feels a lactation consultant is needed in Longford.
At present those in the Roscommon area can avail of a community public health nurse who is trained to help mothers with feeding.
However there is only one consultant based at Mullingar Hospital for just five days per week.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan Show as part of national breastfeeding week, the parent support charity representative hopes there will be a culture of breastfeeding going forward.
''At the moment our culture is more around bottle feeding, which is kind of maybe due to the fact that we as a society look at people to be individuals and to not require help. Have a look at Cuidu Longford/Roscommon, we're on Instagram or on Facebook and we try our best to share everything that's kind of local, you know where you can go to find support locally and anything that might be of interest. And like I say, if you're a lady in Roscommon and you're having difficulties and you want to access that ibclc support, talk to your public health nurse.''
