MOTHERS united in County Durham to take part in a worldwide record attempt aimed at removing the stigma around breastfeeding.

More than 50 mums took part in the Global Big Latch On in Durham City's Wharton Park, the University Hospital of North Durham, Darlington Memorial Hospital and from the comfort of their own homes on Saturday.

They were just some of the estimated 17,000 plus women to feed their babies during the latch-on count at 10.30am local time in towns, cities, and countries, either on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

It was coordinated in the county by the County Durham Infant Feeding Team, who were keen to help raise awareness and knowledge of breastfeeding.

Fiona Malyan-Jacques, public health staff nurse, said: "We have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the UK and the UK has some of the lowest in the world.

"We want to change the conversation around breastfeeding and ensure it becomes a whole community issue instead of just an issue for women.

"Sometimes breastfeeding can be a struggle for women so they need support from all over."

The NHS team, part of Growing Healthy County Durham, works to change the attitudes around breastfeeding to improve wider health inequalities.

They deliver support to breastfeeding mums via a small team of health visitors, a staff nurse and a specialist infant feeding practitioner.

Businesses are also being approached by the team in a bid to make them breastfeeding-friendly venues.

Staff will then be trained to provide support for mums as well as how to respond to customer complaints.

Jessica Crombie, the team's specialist infant feeding practitioner, said: "The culture we live in is somewhere that breastfeeding is not common practice. We're trying to normalise it and remove the stigma."

Among those to attend the Wharton Park world record effort were new mums Zoe Wright, 24, and Dot White, 26.

Both said they had experienced negative responses to breastfeeding in public and wanted to help raise awareness of breastfeeding to give other mothers the confidence to do it.

Miss Wright, mother to ten-week-old Oscar Lamb, said: "There's an unnecessary stigma around breastfeeding in public and this is a good way of making people aware.

"I know a lot of people who don't want to do it in public because of what people think. I want to give mums the confidence that it's normal."

Ms Crombie added: "Breastfeeding is important as it has been proven to reduce the risk of obesity, type two diabetes, gastric problems, food allergies, asthma, eczema and sudden infant death syndrome as well as reducing risks of breast and cervical cancer in mums."