National Breastfeeding Awareness Week On The Way

This year’s National Breastfeeding Awareness Week (NBAW) takes place from May 10th until May 16th. The Department of Health has run NBAW every year since 1993 in order to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding and to highlight every woman’s right to breastfeed at any time, in any place. As a society we are much better at recognizing this right than we used to be but there are still some raised eyebrows if a woman feeds her child in public so there’s still quite a way to go. One of the problems is that some women feel unable to admit that they feel uncomfortable breastfeeding in public because it could be seen that they are “letting the side down”. If we ignore these concerns then fewer women will breastfeed in general which is detrimental to both mothers and babies. Arabella Sargent is a GP based in Sussex and is also the creator of the Baby Babette, a breastfeeding cover for mums who feel a bit self-conscious feeding in mixed company. She is a real advocate of breastfeeding and came up with the idea of the Baby Babette in order to help women feel relaxed enough in public to continue feeding the natural way. “When I had my first baby, Freddie, a couple of years ago, the whole world of breastfeeding was a brand new adventure for the both of us” says Arabella. “As a GP I knew all the facts and figures about why a mother’s milk is the best nutrition a baby can get so I was determined to breastfeed whenever necessary. I found that there were times when I felt that I (and some others around me) would have felt more comfortable with a feeding cover to keep it all under wraps so I designed one and was able to go about my daily feeding routines unhindered. Freddie definitely appreciated it and I’m expecting baby number two later this year and plan to breastfeed just as much second time round!” Despite it being one of the most natural things in the world, breastfeeding hit the headlines in January when Facebook removed lots of photographs showing mums breastfeeding their babies. Claiming that they were only reacting to complaints from other Facebook users, this sparked a massive outcry from people all over the site. An online petition was set up on the site to protest such unnecessary censorship which currently stands at nearly a quarter of a million members. The organizers of the National Breastfeeding Awareness Week have lots of plans up their sleeves of ways to make this year’s the biggest and best yet so keep checking the website to see what they’ll be doing and how you can get involved. www.breastfeeding.nhs.uk For more information about Arabella Sargent or Baby Babette visit www.babybabette.co.uk -Ends- 469 words NOTES TO EDITOR: For more information about Arabella Sargent or Baby Babettes either visit www.babybabette.co.uk or contact me via the details below. Arabella is available for interviews. Media contact: Krister Greer, PMW Communications, 01403 783400 ext. 205 [email protected]. Please contact me for more information, images or samples