Poll shows that Australians are not ready for public breastfeeding

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According to a new poll, one third of Australians do not believe women should breastfeed their babies in public. A third also think that mothers should stop breastfeeding their babies within six months.

Although 65% of people agreed that babies who had been breastfed had a higher survival rate, only 29% agreed that they should be allowed to do so in public.


Up to 36 per cent said breastfeeding was unacceptable in a cafe or at work and the survey also found it was young adults - those aged 18 to 24 - who were the least supportive of public breastfeeding.

"It is unacceptable to expect that women should be locked inside their houses to breastfeed,'' Dr Jennifer James, lecturer in Midwifery and Breastfeeding & Human Lactation at RMIT University said.

"Part of the issue why young mothers wean their babies too early is societal pressure and isolation from other mothers experiencing the same difficulties.''


"While nearly 90 per cent of Australian women initiate breastfeeding, one per cent of Australian children are breastfed for the minimum duration recommended by the WHO,'' Dr James said.


The poll showed the most unacceptable places to breastfeed in order of opposition.

Church 29%
Work 27%
Restaurant or cafe 26%
Shopping mall 19%

(3% of people found breastfeeding unacceptable at a friend's house.)


Source

1 comments:

confused homemaker said...

It is sad to see that people are not comfortable with this totally natural process. And worse that in a Church breastfeeding would not be seen as acceptable, given Jesus was breastfed.

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