South Yorkshire mums 'put off public breastfeeding by negative attitudes'
Academics in Sheffield are calling for a campaign to "normalise" attitudes on breastfeeding in public
It's claimed new mums in South Yorkshire are being put off breastfeeding by negative attitudes towards doing it in public.
New research from Sheffield Hallam University's raised concerns about the number of people opposed to it - and the author's now calling for a campaign to try to "normalise" attitudes.
Analysis of online comments about breastfeeding found 20% expressed the view women shouldn't be doing it in public at all.
Dr Cecile Morris told us the reasons varied:
"We found that a lot of the comments left were citing something very benign - I don't know where to look when a woman starts breastfeeding next to me, I don't want to be caught looking at her. And there were also quite a few people mentioning being mildly disgusted at the breast milk as a bodily fluid."
"Increasing the rates of breastfeeding would save the NHS a lot of money, and we also know that women who breastfeed sometimes give up or breastfeed for not as along as they'd like to because they don't want to feel trapped in their house. So it's bit of a shame sometimes to think that some women would like to be breastfeeding more but that barrier exists."
"We know that there's quite a high percentage of breastfeeding mothers who have been made to feel uncomfortable by members of the public when breastfeeding out there."
The academics involved in the study are now conducting a survey to find out more about attitudes towards public breastfeeding - to see if their initial findings are correct.
Once more's known, they're calling for a campaign to be launched to "normalise" views on the issue - targeting those who are most likely to be opposed to it.
Cecile says they need to know more first though:
"We need to really nail exactly what the nature of the opposition is - why some people are upset with it. And once we really have a good idea about that, we can start working with social marketers to design a campaign that addresses specifically those issues."
"I think that everybody realises that breast is best - that message has got out there quite a lot. But I think that as a society taking the responsibility for easing the way for mothers who want to breastfeed is something that we should share the responsibility for."
If you want to help the academics with their research you can complete the survey here.