Lansinoh Feed with Confidence Awards 2018

Lansinoh Feed with Confidence Awards 2018

You might remember the Lansinoh Feed with Confidence Awards from last year and following its tremendous success, Lansinoh have relaunched the campaign for 2018, aiming to raise as much as awareness of the people and places which are supporting breastfeeding mums.

• Submit your nomination

Do you know a cafe, a shop or a friend who’s helped you to breastfeed with confidence? You can nominate a person or a place for the awards here and all nominations will go into a prize draw to win a family friendly mini break which is a short break of two nights for a family of four staying at one of Luxury Family Hotels’ beautiful hotels in the UK.

• The research behind the awards

In 2016, just under 750,000 babies were born in the UK with over 80% of mothers starting to breastfeed their babies. At six to eight weeks after birth, this number of breastfeeding mums at this time is down to just 43.7%. This is low, especially compared to other countries. In Norway, for example, 80% of mothers are still breastfeeding at 3 months.

The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the whole world. Why is that?

To understand this issue, Lansinoh carried out research amongst 1000 people, looking at perceptions of breastfeeding in public which seems to be one of the big problems. The study found that many people feel uncomfortable with women breastfeeding on public transport and other public places. Other findings are that the over 65s are more accepting of breastfeeding mums in public spaces and people in Wales are more comfortable with it compared to other regions in the UK.

The Equality Act 2010 made it illegal to ask a woman to stop breastfeeding in public, so why is breastfeeding in public such a national taboo still?

It’s nice to hear that a government study found that 72% of the British public outwardly support public breastfeeding but sad to hear that 34% of breastfeeding women feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when feeding their babies in public.

It’s clear that this is an area that the general public still needs to work on and Lansinoh is doing a great job helping women feel more comfortable breastfeeding their babies wherever they are and highlighting the people and places that are supporting breastfeeding mums across the country.

• Feed with confidence

I don’t have a baby at the moment but have breastfed my two daughters and have done so pretty much everywhere — shops, restaurants, cafés, trains, buses and while walking around. Surely, a settled and fed baby is much less disturbing to others than one that’s crying and screaming? We should all feel comfortable feeding our babies anywhere and hope that can be true in the near future.