Majority of Women In UK Too Shy To Breastfeed In Public

July 10, 2009 by tiffanyb
Filed under: News

A new survey released in the UK has revealed that two thirds of women are too shy to breastfeed in public and feel that the UK is not breastfeeding-friendly for women.

Doctors always market breastfeeding as the best possible choice for a baby, but it appears that the majority of women in the UK are too self-conscious to breastfeed their babies. According to a new study, 60 percent of mothers in the UK do not think that the people of the country are breastfeeding-friendly. To go along with that, 65 percent of women say that they would never try breastfeeding because they are concerned about people staring at them.

Of the women who were surveyed who did breastfeed their babies, more than half of them reported that they were asked to leave public places such as cafes. They were forced to breastfeed their baby in a toilet or their car rather than a public place.

The research did reveal some specific regional differences in the results. Places like London came out as the most comfortable for women and breastfeeding. The North West and the West Midlands were the least accepting of breastfeeding in public.

The poll also found out that over 65 percent of the women surveyed said that they would try breastfeeding if it was more widely acceptable in public.

Miranda Levy, the editor of Mother and Baby magazine, who performed this survey, says “Breastfeeding is a wonderful, unique time in a new mum’s life and rightly needs to be celebrated. However, Mother & Baby’s research has confirmed what we always suspected, that Britain needs to be more friendly to breastfeeding mothers. Every mum we questioned understood the health benefits of breastfeeding, but a huge percentage were put off even trying because of the fear of people staring.”