Despite diligently following the advice of her midwife and supportive breastfeeding experts, Yvette Lark (nee Moore) battled unsuccessfully to breastfeed her son Frederick, who is now 8 months old.
"Unfortunately, we never quite mastered breastfeeding - we never quite got there," she said.
Determined to provide Frederick with the health benefits of breast milk, Mrs Lark instead turned to expressing milk using a breast pump, and discovered a lack of provision for mums like her in spaces outside the home.
There are many facilities for breastfeeding mothers, but the situation is not the same for those who need to express - often due to the simple lack of a power point where a breast pump can be plugged in.
Efforts to go into town to take photos of Frederick with Santa for Christmas, or to do some shopping, were thwarted by the lack of a private space to express, leaving Mrs Lark and Frederick to go home empty handed.
While there are breast pumps available with batteries, Mrs Lark said trying them was not very successful, yielding far less milk than her "trusty plug-in Avent pump".
Travelling internationally presented even more challenges for Mrs Lark and her family.
"Airports had no private areas for me to express, leaving me to cry in a hallway or corner, trying my best to cover up," she said.
However, of all the airports visited by the family, Dunedin Airport had the best facilities.
"The parents’ room had a plug, and it wasn’t located inside a toilet. That was a small blessing, and I’m immensely grateful for that experience," she said.
Mrs Lark, who is a nurse, said health guidelines showed that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months was important for babies’ health.
"That’s great if you can, but for those women who struggle to breastfeed, it is much harder."
To produce enough milk to feed Frederick, she had to express every two to three hours.
"It would actually be a relatively simple fix to put in a power point in a family room - one that is private and not beside a toilet.
"The question is, how many mums are just staying home and not going into town or anything, because it is too hard?"
The Breast Room founder and breastfeeding counsellor Denise Ives has worked with Ms Lark during her struggles with breastfeeding, and acknowledged her bravery in telling her story.
"It’s a subject that not many people talk about, yet so many mums are impacted by it," Ms Ives said.
"Most of the people who come to us are struggling with breastfeeding to some degree, including some mums who exclusively use breast pumps.
"Feeding a baby eight, nine, 10 times a day under those circumstances is exhausting."
Ms Ives said, in general, feeding rooms in public facilities and malls were "pretty grungy", and were usually adjacent to the toilets.
"Given that we are in World Breastfeeding Week, it is a good time for organisations who run these facilities to work on improving them," she said.
Contacted by The Star for comment, a Dunedin City Council spokesperson said the council offered breastfeeding spaces at some public facilities, including a carers room at Dunedin City Library and facilities at some community libraries. Unfortunately these did not include power sockets for breast pumps at present.
"We thank your correspondent for their feedback and will consider any possible improvements as our work programme allows," the spokesperson said.
"As part of future developments such as the South Dunedin library complex we will consider the provision of parents/breastfeeding spaces.
"In the meantime, our staff strive to be as accommodating as possible to ensure our public facilities remain breastfeeding friendly."
