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Charlie Hansell is a young mother with a mission - to empower mothers to feel comfortable breastfeeding in public.

This week experts said that social attitudes to breastfeeding need to change in the UK.

The report says British mothers still face a social stigma which acts as a "major barrier".

But Charlie, 27, says that posting breastfeeding pictures on Instagram has given her a lot more confidence than she thought she'd have.

"I started off anonymously and started connecting with mothers all over the world," she's told Newsbeat.

"It's who I wanted to be, but was too scared to be in my day to day life. I was scared to do it in front of my friends and family.

"Putting the breastfeeding pictures up was making myself more confident and [was] to try to help other mothers know that it doesn't matter, that it's amazing what we can do and what we should be doing.

"I wasn't expecting the kind of feedback I got. It was all from mothers. They were praising me for stepping forward and not being ashamed of it."

The UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world - only 40% of babies in the UK are breastfed at six to eight weeks of age, according to the report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

That's in contrast to Norway, where 70% of babies are still breastfed at six months.

"The problem is, breasts and our bodies are seen in public but not for what they're made for," says Charlie.

"There's always billboards and advertisements of lingerie but you don't see advertisements of breast pumps. Or, when you're watching films, you'll have sex scenes but you won't have a breastfeeding mother.

"It's getting shunned as if it's not normal, when really it's the most natural thing in the world.

"At the beginning, babies can feed every hour - you can't trap a mother in their house every hour of the day because the child needs to be fed."

Charlie says that "one of the hardest things is being a working mum".

"When I went back to work and I was breastfeeding, there were a lot of questions from management. There weren't necessarily derogative questions, but there were a lot of questions which they simply didn't understand.

"I think the knowledge needs to be there for companies and businesses as well so they can start making it the norm."

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