93% of Indian moms don’t know where to breastfeed comfortably, says survey

A whopping 93% of Indian moms feel uncomfortable breastfeeding their children in public places due to a lack of dedicated facilities to do the same, shows a survey conducted by Momspresso.com, a parenting content platform. 900 moms were surveyed, 77 percent of whom were millennials. Aiming to understand access to breastfeeding facilities across the country to mark World Breastfeeding Week, the survey has found a major gap between the needs of new mothers and the infrastructure currently in place.
Only 6 percent of Indian moms found a designated breastfeeding area to nurse their children comfortably. So, where do women currently breastfeed? The most common places for women to have breastfed are in their own cars (94%) and public transport like buses, airplanes and metro (83%). 60 percent of women said they had done so in mall or office parking lots, and trial rooms were another common choice, with 47 percent of women having used one to breastfeed.
They also discovered the most awkward places moms have breastfed to highlight the extent of the problem. They found that moms have had to nurse their children in everything from a bench on a mall to the corner of a grocery store. Moms also said they have had to use office store rooms, a broom closet at an airport and employee washrooms in restaurants in order to have acess to a safe and comfortable place to nurse.
The mothers who were surveyed were of the age group of 25-45, with 65 percent being stay-at-home moms, and 35 percent falling into the office-going category. Unsurprisingly, 81 percent of moms felt uncomfortable breastfeeding in public because of staring. An unfortunate consequence of this is a preference to stay at home, the survey found.
There are two primary reasons for this issue — a lack of hygienic, appropriate or safe space to do so, with 53 percent of moms citing that as their primary difficulty, and 47 percent said they were most irked by the lack of privacy and the leering gaze of others.
Parul Ohri, Founding Partner and Chief Editor of Momspresso said, “New mothers are intent on breastfeeding to ensure their babies get the best nutritional start possible, but they also need that intent to be supported by simple facilities such as a designated breastfeeding space in public areas such as restaurants, banks, offices, and malls. Our survey presents clear data to indicate how the lack of hygienic and private spaces in the public domain are proving to be barriers to breastfeeding.” The hope is that compiling this information could lead to policy changes to ensure that our infrastructure supports mothers to create positive breastfeeding experiences.