The nursery industry is celebrating National Breastfeeding Week, taking place from 1 – 7 August, in a bid to highlight the benefits of breastfeeding while also ensuring that nursing mothers and their children continue to be supported, especially during the current pandemic.
This year has seen the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (in partnership with the World Health Organization and Unicef) focusing on the support available during Covid-19. An official statement issued by WHO said:
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, it is even more important to find innovative solutions to ensure that access to essential services is not disrupted and that families continue to receive the breastfeeding counselling they need.”
Meanwhile, key nursery names have promoting the week in their own ways. Medela has been focusing on creative ways to normalise breastfeeding with a social media campaign and the #NormalizeBreastfeeding hashtag, while Lanisoh has been sharing its own in-depth research into the effect of the pandemic on breastfeeding.
Lanisoh’s new survey has revealed the impact of lockdown on the confidence levels of new mums, with three quarters of breastfeeding mums admitting they now feel more cautious about breastfeeding in public, as a direct result of Covid-19.
Just over two fifths of mums now feel confident enough to breastfeed their newborn if they were out in public. With restaurants and bars now re-open, 43% will take measures to try to avoid breastfeeding in public, while a further 14% will avoid it completely.
The research was released as part of Lansinoh’s annual ‘Feed with Confidence’ campaign, which aims to encourage mums to feel more empowered to breastfeed their child outside of their own home.
“It’s completely understandable that following so many months of lockdown, the prospect of breastfeeding in a public space can feel daunting for many mums,” said Lisa Craven, UK marketing manager at Lansinoh.
“However, it’s crucial that mums feel confident in feeding their little ones, whenever and wherever their child gets hungry. Breastfeeding is the most natural way for a mother to feed her baby, and we want to support mums to breastfeed in public, and help more mums feed with confidence.”
Lansinoh is encouraging mums to upload a picture of them breastfeeding to Instagram with the hashtag #FWC2020, to help more mums confidently feed in public, with all posts being entered into a monthly prize draw.
