A breastfeeding mother was forced to stand for half an hour on a packed rush hour train because no one would offer her a seat.

Kate Hitchens, 32, was travelling home to Essex from London with her six-month-old son Charlie on Tuesday and “couldn’t get her head around” how inconsiderate everyone on the train was.

In an angry Instagram post, she shared a photo of herself standing on the packed train and wrote that commuters saw her nursing a “wriggling and writhing” 20lb Charlie but did nothing to help her.

“The point here isn’t just that I found it difficult because I was nursing (although that was bloody difficult!), but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for around half an hour,” she wrote.

“I could have asked, but I didn’t. I felt silly. I shouldn’t have to ask. Maybe some people didn’t see. I know for a fact some did; they made eye contact and actually smiled at me. I was thinking stop smiling and offer me your seat please!”

Kate, who writes about baby-led weaning on her blog Hitchins’ Kitchen, told the BBC the journey left her feeling “embarrassed and flustered”.

“I don’t make a big deal of breastfeeding and try to be discreet but everyone could see what I was doing,” she said. “Physically, I felt quite uncomfortable as I didn’t have much to hold on to and Charlie was jiggling around as the train moved so it hurt.”

Kate called for people to be more considerate: “Next time you see someone with a child on a train – if you’re able bodied and hit and healthy please offer your seat to them!”