Sad truth about breastfeeding

staggering 93 percent of Indian moms feel uncomfortable while breastfeeding their children in public places due to a stark lack of breastfeeding facilities, reveal the findings of a survey conducted by Momspresso.com,

India's user-generated content platform that allows women to express themselves through different formats including text, audio, and video across ten languages.

Titled 'Breastfeeding Challenges faced by Indian Moms2019' the survey was conducted online among 900 moms, out of which 77% were millennials.

The survey, which was primarily focused on breastfeeding facilities available in the country, uncovered asignificant gap between the infrastructure and the needs of breastfeeding mothers in the country.

To understand and highlight the challenges faced by moms, Momspresso.com reached out to Indian women between the age group of 25-45 with 35% of surveyed moms falling in the office-going category and 65% were stay-at-home moms.

The survey findings revealed that top places where Indian mothers have breastfed their children included their own car (94%), public transport like metro, bus, train, airplane (83%), restaurants, mall/office car parking (60%) and trial rooms (47%).

Indian office-going mothers stated that they have also breastfed in their office (60%) and in the car parking of their office (47%). However, only 6% of Indian mothers found a designated breastfeeding area to comfortably nurse their children.

Not surprising, 81% of Indian moms mentioned that they feel uncomfortable breastfeeding in public places in India because of the constant staring.

An unfortunate result is that a majority of nursing mothers prefer to stay home in order to breastfeed comfortably.

When asked about the barriers to breastfeeding comfortably in India, 53% of moms cited the lack of hygienic, appropriate or safe spaces while 47% said that it is the lack of privacy and constant staring by people that hinders comfortable breastfeeding.

Through this pertinent survey, has taken the first step towards identifying the existing challenges and establishing that external factors and facilities play a significant role in ensuring a comfortable and positive breastfeeding experience for moms.