GRANDPARENTS IN IRELAND are being increasingly relied upon to care for their grandchildren, a new report has suggested.

‘Growing up in Ireland’ is a government-funded study that has followed the development of thousands of children all over the country. The first part of the study relates to data collected on 11,100 nine-month old infants, and shows that 38 per cent of babies were in some form of childcare.

The most common form of non-parental childcare used was care by a relative (16 per cent), and the most common provider of relative childcare was grandparents (12 per cent). The most common form of non-relative care was unregistered childminders.

More mothers reported to be “very satisfied” with their childcare if it was provided by a relative (86 per cent), particularly if the care was provided in the child’s home. In contrast, only 72 per cent of mothers who used centre-based care said they were “very satisfied” with their childcare – the reasons for this being:

• Cost
• preference to mind the child at home
• service provided at crèche (staff, mix with older children)
• the potential for picking up illnesses in the crèche

The study also found how the modern Irish family is madeup:

• 86 per cent of nine-month-olds involved in the study live in two-parent families
• 14 per cent live in lone-parent families
• More than 70 per cent  of the mothers of nine-month-olds were married, and 15 per cent lived with a partner
• 57 per cent of babies were breastfed at some stage, with Irish-born mothers much less likely to breastfeed than mothers born elsewhere

It was also found that one in 10 Irish women who have had no intention of ever becoming pregnant. Of those surveyed, 59 per cent of mothers said that they intended to get pregnant when they did, 23 per cent had intended to get pregnant at another time, 7 per cent were unsure or did not mind that they had become pregnant and 10 per cent had no intention of ever becoming pregnant.

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