Madam,

The National Library café has been nominated for a Feed With Confidence Award. The awards have been designed by Lansinoh to celebrate places and people across the country supporting breastfeeding mums.

In 2015, 776,950 babies were born in the UK. Yet just 0.5 per cent of UK mums are breastfeeding their newborn at 12 months, despite recommendations from the World Health Organisation to continue breastfeeding into your baby’s second year.

With British breastfeeding rates among the worst in the world, could the culprit be society’s attitudes towards breastfeeding? To understand if there is a stigma attached to breastfeeding in public, Lansinoh conducted research to gauge public opinion. The new research quashed common misconceptions, revealing that the over-65s are the most accepting and that men are more comfortable with it than women. Witnessing a woman breastfeeding in a café, restaurant or pub was uncomfortable for an average of 46 per cent of people.

Nominations for the award are still open and I would be very grateful if you could ask your readers to nominate any local business which has gone above and beyond when they have been breastfeeding in their venue! They can do this via the following link: https://www.lansinoh.co.uk/feed-with-confidence

Yours etc,

Georgia Horne, Lansinoh.

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