New research to shed light on hardships faced by parents of young children during Black Summer

The study was launched in Moruya on Wednesday, August 31 and is being conducted by the Australian Breastfeeding Association in conjunction with researchers from Western Sydney University.

Research and planning in the Eurobodalla will eventually form a model for other communities around the country, but anyone with young children at the time of the fires has been encouraged to submit a survey response.

Leading the project is Karleen Gribble, an adjunct associate professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University.

Dr Gribble has been involved in the area of young child and infant feeding in emergencies for 15 years and has worked with international organisations such as UNICEF and Save the Children.

She said the research gathered from the survey would result in better future planning for infants, young children and their caregivers throughout Australia in emergencies.

Dr Gribble said during the Black Summer bushfires families along the eastern seaboard weren't provided with "information on what they needed to pack if they were going to evacuate".

She said Australia lacked vital planning when it came to informing parents and caregivers about how to adequately plan.

"We've got good resources for people to prepare for an emergency with their pets, but we don't have anything for young children," she said.

Dr Gribble has long been aware of the shortfalls and has been lobbying the government since 2018 to have emergency plans revised since an audit of 300 government plans showed very little advice for young children.

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She said the lack of education meant parents were evacuating without having everything they needed, or delayed evacuation trying to gather necessities.

For formula fed babies, that process was more challenging as often evacuation centres had little to no facilities for washing hands and bottles. Centres may not have access to mains water either.

"For those mothers and caregivers, ensuring you have everything you need to feed your baby for two or three days is quite important.

"But it's actually quite a lot of stuff, it's not something you can easily get together on the day when you're overwhelmed."

Dr Gribble said she had heard reports of parents trying to wash bottles in toilet basins where there were only a few toilets available to hundreds of people.

"We recommend people have one bottle per feed that's available to them so they don't have to wash bottles."

Another finding of the survey so far had been that often parents did not feel safe with their young children at evacuation centres due the high volume of adults coming and going, and animals that could injure kids.

"We're going to be having some recommendations around evacuation centres having spaces just for families with little kids and having registration processes that actually identify those more vulnerable people."

She said a concerning response had been received that a mother with baby and toddler had been left last to leave, along with an elderly woman, after concerns were raised that their evacuation centre might catch alight.

"That's a bit of a failure there that the most vulnerable people weren't being looked after.

"I mean the fires were unprecedented and a lot of it might have been unavoidable, but I think we can do better at least in terms of planning to reduce the likelihood of those sorts of things happening," said Dr Gribble.

She also felt women had not been adequately informed before the looming bushfire season that stopping breastfeeding during that time could make evacuation more difficult for feeding babies.

Some women also faced a lack of breastfeeding support if telecommunications facilities were down.

"A lot of mums have concerns in an emergency because things are so stressful, they get worried it might be having an impact on their milk supply."

She said a baby's behaviour could also change with babies getting more clingy, feeding more often, and not sleeping very well during emergencies.

"Breastfeeding is actually quite robust and so women are able to breastfeed through emergencies, but what they need is support from people who know about breastfeeding and are able to help them interpret their baby's behaviours.

"At the moment that's not something that's a part of any of our emergency planning," she said.

In terms of recovery, so far the survey had found mothers groups were really focused on the emergencies when new mothers really just needed continued support around "ordinary baby and new mother stuff".

"Life goes on when you've got a new baby or little children, so in some respects you don't have the space to be dealing with all of that stuff because you've got this which is also a really big thing to be dealing with."

Another issue that had been raised was that following bushfire emergencies and into COVID, baby clinics and family health centres were often closed.

"It you were a first time mum with a new baby, you were really left high and dry.

"They weren't necessarily able to go and see a child health nurse even to get a baby weighed."

Mothers were also really worried about the impact of smoke on their babies during pregnancies and on the lungs of new-borns.

The survey will be open until December 2022, but Dr Gribble encouraged caregivers to provide responses as soon as possible to assist the research team.

She was very thankful for the time it took parents to undertake the survey given their caregiving role.

Click here to complete the survey. It takes around 30 minutes and your place will be retained if you close and reopen it on the same device.

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