Of the 1,100 women surveyed online, more than half said that the felt pressure to wean their children before they were really ready to do so. The shockingly high number caused those at TheBump.com to create a breastfeeding awareness campaign for mothers and mothers-to-be.
“Our survey, TheBump.com 3rd Annual Pregnancy & Baby Study, found that so many moms (more than 50%!) were having difficulty breastfeeding and that so many people were simply weirded out by it,” said Carley Roney, editor in chief of TheBump.com. “That’s when we realized we needed to create an awareness campaign–‘Breastfeeding Doesn’t Suck’–that would shine a light on the unbelievable benefits of breastfeeding–and help new moms battle the initial hurdles of breastfeeding.”
For the survey, nearly 3,000 women from the website The Knot Inc were surveyed on breastfeeding. Another 8,000 women from The Bump were also surveyed about their thoughts and feelings on breastfeeding. From the survey, never key issues were uncovered.
- 54% of moms think women are pressured to stop breastfeeding sooner than they would like to; 46% of women overall think women are pressured to stop breastfeeding sooner than they would like to.
- Nearly 30% of women without children feel there shouldn’t be so much pressure on moms to breastfeed. 22% of non-moms also said that the “right” age for a mother to stop breastfeeding was 6 months or younger.
- 64% of new moms are embarrassed to breastfeed in public, 23% of them refuse to breastfeed in public under any circumstances.
- 57% of women without children feel uncomfortable seeing someone breastfeed in public. In fact, a full 20% of women said, “Ewww, in private please!”
- More than 20% of women without children think that formula can keep baby just as healthy as breast milk. 18% of moms feel the same way.
Though breastfeeding has made great strides at being more mainstream, the survey shows that there is still a long way to go before it is fully accepted and supported. More people need to be educated on the benefits of breastfeeding, including why doing so for long term is so important. – Summer, staff writer
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