Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is offering to local authorities to help people stuck in temporary accommodation. (S6O-03010)

What the minister failed to mention is that more than 15,000 households are stuck in temporary accommodation. “The homelessness monitor: Scotland 2024” predicts that homelessness will increase by 33 per cent by 2026. I find it shocking that the Scottish National Party Government has chosen to cut the housing budget and to starve councils of the funding that is necessary to tackle those issues. Does the Scottish Government plan to declare a housing emergency to ensure that the predictions in the homelessness monitor do not come to fruition?

I commend Stephanie Callaghan for her work on breastfeeding. I want to mention my experience in relation to health visitors. My daughter has not had all of her health visits. The health visiting service is so understaffed that it is unable to fulfil all the milestones in a baby’s journey. Does the member find that concerning? What can we do to encourage more people to become health visitors, to ensure that we have the support in place to help mums to breastfeed?

I have been listening to what the minister is saying because I am really interested in this subject. In particular, take-up of breastfeeding tends to be lower in areas of high deprivation. Has the Scottish Government done any research on that? Is there a clear focus on ensuring that we are getting to the people whom we really need to get to?

I do not think that anyone can dispute the health and wellbeing benefits that breastfeeding provides not just for mothers but for babies. I, too, welcome the tone of the debate.

It is right that we celebrate the progress that is being made in encouraging mothers to breastfeed, but we should also acknowledge that some mothers experience challenges when it comes to breastfeeding and that some mothers cannot breastfeed at all. We have struck the right balance today in making sure that the messaging is clear.

I have come to the chamber today with two asks of the Scottish Government: to carefully consider the messaging around stigma both against women who breastfeed in public and against mothers who cannot breastfeed—many members have pointed that out—and to carefully consider the support that mothers are meant to receive after their baby is born.

I make those asks of the Government because some mothers struggle to breastfeed. That was certainly my experience when I became a new mother in 2022. I do not think that I will ever forget how crippled by anxiety I was and how isolated I felt when I had to end my breastfeeding journey. I just felt as though I was not able to provide for my baby. It was an awful time. However, it is important to me to share my experience, because I want to give mothers who have struggled a voice and to ensure that they do not feel alone. The debate on breastfeeding is all very upbeat and positive, but it carries an undertone for those mothers who, for many reasons, struggle when they try to give their babies the best possible start in life.

I will draw on my own experience. I was so excited to start my own breastfeeding journey. In the run-up to Charlotte’s birth, I had spent weeks and months reading as much information as I could, I had bought equipment and I was so ready to welcome the new addition to my family. However, breastfeeding just was not meant to be. The reason was that I had a traumatic experience during my daughter’s birth, because I had taken morphine during her delivery. Charlotte was sleepy due to the side-effects of the medication that I had taken and she had absorbed, so the latching and the initial breastfeeding were not as natural as they should have been. However, as I had been going through labour, no one had explained to me the impacts of taking that medication and its consequences for my baby. Had I had another option, I would probably have reconsidered my decision for that reason—as I would do were I to be in the same circumstances again. In my view, it gave me a bit of a setback in breastfeeding my baby.

However, nothing that occurred during labour or the birth process stopped me breastfeeding; that happened shortly after I was able to bring Charlotte home. New mothers receive many visits from midwives and health visitors. A midwife who weighed Charlotte noticed that her weight had gone down. Again, I had not been informed before the birth that that was natural for breastfed babies. The midwife suggested to me that Charlotte could go on to combination feeding. However, that was not what I had planned or what I wanted for my baby. That put me in the position of asking myself what I should do. Should I still try to breastfeed, as had been my plan, or should my baby go on to combination feeding, as the midwife had suggested? We followed the latter path. In the end, Charlotte just wanted to bottle feed and was not much interested in breastfeeding any more. Unfortunately, that ended my breastfeeding journey after four months. It certainly was not what I had planned or what I wanted, but it was the option that was available to me at that point in time. I know so many other mothers to whom that has happened.

Another issue that cropped up throughout my pregnancy and after Charlotte was born was the number of midwives and health visitors I encountered and was introduced to—they chopped and changed so many times. I ended up with three midwives, and I am currently on my fourth health visitor. Such inconsistency does not allow new mothers to bond, build important relationships and share information. They need to build a level of trust and feel that the professionals are looking after them so that they can then give them the best information to help them to support their babies.

That is why one of my asks of the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise concerns the support that new mothers receive once they have had their babies. We must examine the resources that are available for midwives and health visitors. I know that the lack of such resources is rife in Lanarkshire, the area where I am from, but it is replicated in many other health board areas across Scotland. That does not give mothers and babies the best start, because they do not have a bond with someone they trust. We must consider the support that women receive once their babies are home and they are starting the process of being new mothers.

Having said that, I do not blame our incredible NHS workers, who do so much. Being understaffed and overworked adds to the pressures that they face, which in turn does not give mums the best start when they bring their babies home.

I know that I am over time, so I will conclude there. I say to the minister that we need to listen to mothers if we can, particularly those who are struggling to breastfeed, and we need to look at the process and the support that mothers receive once they bring their baby home. We need to ensure that they have access to a consistent health visitor and a consistent midwife to ensure that they get the best possible support so that they can provide for their baby.

Does Claire Baker welcome the recent efforts by some supermarkets to lower the price of formula to make it more affordable for families who are experiencing a tough time just now because of the cost of living crisis?

Will Claire Baker take an intervention?

I welcome the minister’s answer, because the suicide rate for boys and young men aged five to 24 is two times higher than that for girls and young women in the same age group. One of the recommendations in the report is that the Scottish Government sets a national equality outcome to reduce the suicide rate among five to 24-year-olds, particularly in males. Will the minister commit to implementing that?

What other recommendations from the report could be implemented to provide support to boys and young men and prevent more lives from being lost to suicide?

To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to reduce the rates of male suicide in Scotland, in light of the issues raised in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s “Equality and Human Rights Monitor” report for 2023. (S6O-02950)

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s comments on the late arrival of her statement. When Nicola Sturgeon said last year that the debate would be over by Christmas, I do not think that she meant this Christmas. The Scottish Conservatives repeatedly told the Scottish National Party Government that the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was fundamentally flawed. We warned all along that this would happen, but the SNP Government did not listen. Instead, it has spent time and taxpayers’ money on a doomed legal battle to revive laws that the majority of the Scottish public do not want—laws that undermine the rights and safety of women, girls and vulnerable young people. Women’s groups were ignored throughout the debate, and I am delighted that their hard-fought campaign has been won. However, the debacle leaves the SNP’s relationship with the Greens in tatters. I wonder whether Green MSPs will follow through on their threat and quit the Government after the announcement. It might be a lot better for Scotland if they did.

We know that self-identification has been a failed experiment that the Scottish public oppose. Will the cabinet secretary outline whether lessons have been learned? If so, can she reassure women’s groups that their concerns will be listened to in the future to prevent this sorry saga from ever happening again?