Mothers have hailed a Channel 4 investigation into the stigma attached to breastfeeding for normalising the topic – and flooded social media with photos of themselves feeding their babies.
The Dispatches documentary Breastfeeding Uncovered, which aired on Monday night, explored the judgement women continue to face for choosing to breastfeeding in public, including presenter and new mother Kate Quilton, 34, of East London, who said she’d been made to feel like a ‘social outcast and a leper’ for nursing her baby while out and about.
‘You get lots of raised eyebrows, a few people tutting … whispers. Seems totally bonkers,’ Kate, who gave birth to her son in May, said on the show.
The programme revealed how the judgement felt by mothers has contributed to the UK’s position as one of the 10 countries with the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, according to figures from Unicef.
Hundreds of women who watched the show took to Twitter and Instagram to praise the show for shining a spotlight on ‘the most natural thing in the world’ – and to share their own experiences of being chided by strangers for breastfeeding in public.
But some mothers accused the show of ‘shaming’ and ‘guilt-tripping’ women who formula feed their babies due to its emphasis on the ‘breast is best’ philosophy.
Instagram user Holly Cox was among scores of women inspired by Channel 4’s Breastfeeding Uncovered to share their own photos of themselves nursing their babies – all in an effort to normalise breastfeeding
Fellow mother Kirsty Loveday-Sams wrote on her Instagram breastfeeding snap: ‘If this offends anyone then it’s your issue not mine!’
Mother Amy Louise said on Twitter she hadn’t received any negative comments while breastfeeding in public, but added: ‘I would surely tell them what I think if they tried it’
Quilton’s revelations about the negative comments she received in public struck a chord with mothers watching at home, one of whom wrote on Twitter: ‘The looks I get feeding a 15-month old that’s the size of a 2-year-old are something else – good job seeing as I still feed my nearly 4-year-old occasionally I don’t care what anyone else thinks.’
Another mother wrote: ‘A waiter in a restaurant told me someone at a neighbouring table complained I was breastfeeding near them. Who should be expected to eat in the toilets? Certainly not my baby son.’
Watching the programme also prompted author and food writer Georgina Hayden to post on Instagram to condemn the ‘shocking’ low rates of breastfeeding in the UK – and the ‘lack of support for new mums to actually do the job’.
Georgina, who wrote that she had had to ‘justify my decision to friends’ and ‘had people avoid sitting next to me in public’, said: ‘So many mums I know weren’t able to, for various reasons. But for a lot of women I bet it was because they weren’t shown, encouraged or guided properly.’
Her comments were backed by celebrity mum Jools Oliver, the wife of TV chef Jamie, who replied to her post to say she’d breastfed River, the youngest of her five children, for 18 months, only stopping because of recurrent mastitis, and that she too had faced comments that ‘shocked’ her as a result.
But not all mothers were impressed by the Dispatches show, with some accusing it of taking an ‘overly simplistic’ approach to the topic and others insisting the emphasis on the benefits of breastfeeding only served to make women who don’t or can’t nurse their babies feel guilty.
One woman wrote on Twitter: ‘I didn’t watch #breastfeedinguncovered because I knew it would upset me. My baby is 10 weeks old and I was too ill to satisfy a bigger than average baby. Blood loss during labour & 2 transfusions left me opting for formula. I don’t need a tv show making me feel bad.’
Another said: ‘It’s 2018 and STILL the breast v bottle debate is STILL making mother’s feel bad #BreastfeedingUncovered I feel like there will never be a time when a Mummy that chose to bottle feed for WHATEVER reason feels proud of how she fed her baby.’
‘Fed is best’: Mother Georgia Tennant wrote in a tweet, along with a snap of her feeding her baby in a swimming pool
The mum behind the Mind Bump and Baby Instagram feed shared a snap of herself feeding her three week old baby, insisting: ‘It’s the most natural thing in the world’
This mum’s snap was shared on the Lansinoh Family Instagram account. After a ‘rocky start’ her youngest is ‘going strong a year on’, she wrote
Personal journey: New mother and journalist Kate Quilton, 34, of East London, spoke candidly of the painful struggle she faced trying to breastfeed her son in the weeks following his birth in May this year. Pictured, the mother and son in a scene from C4’s Breastfeeding Uncovered
The author and food writer Georgina Hayden was among those posting on social media after the Channel 4 documentary was broadcast on Monday night, to reveal the stigma she herself had faced as a result of her decision to breastfeed
Chef Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools, a mother of five, said she’d received comments that ‘shocked’ her over her decision to breastfeed
Research in 2016 found that 40 per cent of women stop breastfeeding after six weeks because they felt judged – or feared being judged.
Professor Amy Brown, of Swansea University, said: ‘The statistics show that you have one group of women who has a bad experience, so someone will say something to them in public.
‘But then for the much larger group, it’s the fear that they will – so that underlying worry that someone is going to do something. It makes them so tense that they just can’t do it any more.’
Some women revealed the judgement they had faced in the past as breastfeeding mothers
Quilton, 34, revealed on the show how she was judged when breastfeeding her baby in public.
She said: ‘Before we made the film I knew that women had been shamed for feeding their babies in public but I was still surprised when it happened to me.
‘I was breastfeeding in my local park and amazed to hear two older ladies muttering “Not in my day” and how I ought to be feeding “behind closed doors”.’
Addressing those who suggest mothers should breastfeed in public toilets, she added: ‘Would you want to eat your lunch in the loo?’
The documentary also highlighted a worrying lack of understanding regarding the benefits of breast milk.
This is despite experts stressing that there are many nutrients in breast milk that cannot be replicated artificially.
And it can give babies natural painkillers, aids to sleep and immune support.
Dr Simon Cameron, of Imperial College London, told Channel 4’s Dispatches: ‘What human milk has done is evolved to really meet the needs of a newborn infant. It is something that we just cannot … replicate in the lab.’
A survey by Swansea University has revealed that 67 per cent of those polled believe there is no difference between breast and formula milk.
But Dr Cameron and his colleagues have pinpointed thousands of different types of fats that are beneficial for baby.
Not all viewers were impressed with the documentary’s presentation of the debate, with some declaring it ‘overly simplistic’ and others suggesting it ‘shamed’ mothers who don’t or can’t breastfeed their children
One of these, arachidonic acid, breaks down into products called endocannabinoids, which provide a natural pain-killing mechanism.
Another crucial component of breast milk is the microbiome, a cluster of naturally occurring bacteria essential for providing the building blocks for normal health and priming the immune system.
Praise: Kate shared this photo praising her midwife Zahra at Royal London Hospital in May. The mother reveals on TV how she struggled to breastfeed for weeks following her son’s birth
Human milk may also help to protect children against obesity, diabetes and cancer in later life.
Sue Ashmore, of the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, said just 1 per cent of women in the UK exclusively breastfeed by the time their baby is six months old.
She said: ‘Because we’re such a bottle-feeding culture, if you have problems the answer tends to be to bottle-feed. I think it has a lot of implications for long-term health.
‘You get increased rates of cancer, you get increased obesity when babies are not breastfed. So it is a major public health crisis.’