Upplevelser av att amma på offentlig plats : En kvalitativ intervjustudie

There has been a recent debate in swedish media about wether public breastfeeding is acceptable or not. Studies from mostly North America and England has shown that women feel uncomfortable breastfeeding in public. Sweden has a high rate of breastfeeding. The World Healh Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the child is six months. There has not been any studies approaching women’s individual experiences of breastfeeding exclusively in Sweden and therefore the purpose of this study was to explore women’s experiences of breastfeeding in public and see if the experiences changes the breastfeeding behavior. The two research questions were – what are women’s experiences of breastfeeding in public places, and are women limited geographically when they are breastfeeding? The study has a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews as a method. Four women were interviewed and the results showed that the women mostly were comfortable breastfeeding in public but they could feel uncomfortable because they experienced that other people could be uneased with them breastfeeding in public places. Some of the women felt that they had to be discrete and therefore hid their breast. Two of the women were actively reflecting on their breastfeeding as a way to normalize public breastfeeding. The women are not directly geographically limited, but because they feel uncomfortable they can create private rooms in public places by being discrete.