An Australian professor has hit back at journalists after being accused of calling mothers who push their babies in forward facing pushchairs cruel and selfish

Cathrine Fowler, a professor in Child & Family Health, at the University of Technology, Sydney, stirred up a storm on Tuesday after a lecture which included a video on what a baby might experience when travelling in a front facing pushchair.

She was reported in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph as saying that:

"Outward-facing baby carriers and prams give babies a bombardment of stimulus, creating a very stressful situation" and that "In not considering our baby's perspective, we are inadvertently quite cruel to children"

Other media outlets soon picked up the story and Professor Fowler found herself at the centre of a storm as other experts set to refute her findings and she became the subject of hate mail from angry parents.

She now claims she was taken out of context and that the journalist concerned wrote an article that "failed to provide all the facts" and "was written in extremely emotive language" saying that:

"I also emphasised the need to be sensitive with the story as my intent was not to make parents feel guilty. I think I was far too trusting in assuming that everyone had the best interest of infants at heart."

Much of Professor Fowler's discussion was based on research carried out on 2722 babies in the UK in 2008. Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, the psychologist who carried out the research said:

'Our data suggests that for many babies, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults.'

The study found that it is more isolating for babies to face outwards than parents or researchers had previously realised, with outward-facing prams leading to reduced talking to the baby by the parent. Babies in parent-facing prams, however, were more likely to laugh and more likely to fall asleep -interpreted as a measure of lowered stress levels.

In another, smaller, study carried out, mothers with forward-facing prams were given the option to use parent facing models and found that they improved their interaction with their infant and was much more enjoyable and fun.

In response to the furore in the media, Professor Fowler wrote in The Conversation that she hoped that the research might prompt parents to become more aware of their infants, regularly talk to them and touch them.

"The most disturbing thing for me is that a suggestion that infants like to and need to see their parents and interact with them has caused so much anger."

"My intention has never been to make parents feel guilty - I am a parent myself and know how difficult it can be to make decisions about parenting."