The story begins with a male caller phoning into the Ray Darcy show on Today FM to describe his disgust at having seeing a mother breast feeding in Dundrum Shopping Centre. Then one of the girls at Presentation Secondary School, Thurles, spoke of her father’s discomfort at seeing a woman breast feeding.
That did it, and a group of students at Presentation Thurles decided to find out exactly what Irish attitudes were to breast feeding compared to another country. The country they decided to compare with was Germany, by virtue of the fact that the school had long standing connections with a school in Rosenheim, Bavaria.
The plan was to conduct a survey of attitudes among Irish mothers and German mothers to the ‘emotive’ issue of breast feeding and the results were fascinating.
In general terms it appears that German women are more enthusiastic for breast feeding with more than 90 per cent of women surveyed in Rosenheim adhering to World Health Organisation guidelines to breast feed for the first six months. However, this doesn’t apparently tell the whole story as many German women also said that the breast fed, despite the fact that they didn’t particularly like it. The reason, it seems, is a strong desire to do the right thing, and follow the rules.
As we know in Ireland, people are not as bothered by rules, and the issue for women here was a sense of guilt when a decision was made to bottle feed.
The survey, conducted among 50 Irish and 50 German women was conducted by students Alison Kelly, Sarah Jane O’Riordan, and Orlaith Quigley. The survey was done with the guidance of their teacher Emma Kavanagh. [The three students and their teacher, Emma, are pictured here above]
The aims of the survey were to determine the percentage of mothers that initiated breastfeeding; the average length of time breastfeeding was continued; the emotional, social and physical difficulties faced by breastfeeding mothers; how mothers were supported, and by whom. Clear differences emerged.
The survey determined that 100 per cent of the German women had initiated breast feeding with at least one child, while 56.25% of Irish women had done so. The survey found that, for the first child, 84 per cent of Irish mothers did not feed beyond three months. The mothers continued longer with breastfeeding for subsequent children, with 70 per cent not feeding their second child past three months, and 56 per cent deciding not to feed their third child past three months.
The results that came back from the students’ survey correlated closely with the Irish and German national statistics on breast feeding. A 2009 report in Ireland found that 47 per cent of women tried breast feeding to begin with, but that the figure had fallen to 28 per cent after four weeks. In Germany, meanwhile, the statistics indicate that 90 per cent start breast feeding and are still doing it six months later. That is despite the fact that many German mothers don’t like it.
In Ireland it appears there are huge pressures on women to breast feed, and that they are made to feel guilty when they decide to bottle feed instead. Then, for those mothers that do breast feed in public they are often met with open hostility.
According to a survey among researchers, it is difficult to quantify the true extent of the hazards of antibiotic resistances to humankind. The survey conducted by Freie Universität Berlin and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will be introduced on the occasion of the international World Antibiotic Awareness Week on Sunday, November 19. It reveals that among researchers worldwide, there is broad agreement on the fact that antibiotic resistances are serious health hazards. The number of related deaths, however, cannot be determined reliably.
The British O'Neill Commission expects ten million deaths each year from 2050 onwards. Only a minority of the experts interviewed believe such spectacular estimates to be reliable. For his survey, Markus Lehmkuhl, Professor for Science Communication in Digital Media at KIT and Freie Universität Berlin, conducted online interviews with 375 researchers worldwide. The survey focused on researchers who, in the past three years, have published relevant studies in international journals. The World Antibiotic Awareness Week is called in by international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the public awareness of antibiotic resistance. "The uncertainty about the number of deaths is due to a broad disagreement among researchers as to whether the number of deaths can be determined by means of the available scientific methods," Lehmkuhl says. One third of the interviewees believe the reliability of the respective methods to be low or very low, another third think that it is high or very high, and the remaining third do not want to commit themselves.
The researchers interviewed agree that countermeasures are required urgently. Almost all survey participants (98.4 percent) fear serious or very serious consequences if nothing is done against the propagation of resistant pathogens. From the point of view of the experts, the two most effective measures would be to reduce use of antibiotics in medicine and to improve hygiene in hospitals. It is important, moreover, to reduce use of antibiotics in livestock farming and to develop vaccines, alternative therapies and, eventually, new agents against resistant bacteria.
In view of the above challenges, the survey participants do not deem antibiotic resistance to be inadequately addressed in the public sphere: "Almost two thirds believe that dramatic wording e.g., talking about a "global disaster" or the "onset of a post-antibiotic age", are more or less justified," Lehmkuhl explains and summarizes: "Although everybody is convinced that antibiotic resistances are extremely dangerous, methodological problems make it very difficult to provide reliable figures. To draw attention to this important area of action nevertheless, most of the experts interviewed think it justified to use an alarming vocabulary to make the media react." This, however, bears the risk of attempts to outdo each other. "The voice of those reporting the highest numbers of deaths and drawing up the darkest scenarios will finally be heard."
The survey is part of the joint research project "Rationaler Antibiotikaeinsatz durch Information und Kommunikation – RAI (rational use of antibiotics through information and communication), which is being coordinated by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The relevant interdisciplinary research is dedicated to the issues of using antibiotics and developing resistances. The subproject conducted by Professor Lehmkuhl, moreover, aims to create a survey tool by means of which a maximum number of experts can be interviewed on one subject e.g., by journalists. "Meanwhile, our knowledge level is too high and too sophisticated to be represented by individual researchers," Lehmkuhl says. He fancies to follow the example of climate research and tap the expertise of the global scientific community. The 375 experts interviewed on the subject of antibiotics represent about 2500 researchers worldwide who, in the past three years, have published relevant studies on antibiotic resistance in international journals. This is 15 percent of all researchers working in that area. To be able to conduct such surveys also on other topics, the KIT, in the joint research project RAI, cooperates with the Science Media Center in Cologne. It is planned to establish a method by means of which all experts from specific subject areas can contribute selectively to public discourse e.g., via a web portal that can be used by journalists to interview the members of the global community of experts.
Being „The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 26,000 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life.