These Delhi women don’t shy away from breastfeeding in malls, metro or even Uber cabs

Melinda Kaur who doesn't shy away from breastfeeding in public poses with her child | By special arrangement

As health experts continue to emphasise the importance of breast milk for children, mothers around the country are fighting stares to nurse their little ones.

New Delhi: New mothers know the drill all too well. They are out at the mall, or on the Metro, or in an Uber when their child suddenly wakes up and starts crying for food. They realise they hadn’t accounted for this hunger pang, but — at times unfazed, at times embarrassed — cradle the child and place him/her at their breast.

It’s the ultimate image of mother-and-child bonding, but breastfeeding in public places often draws derisive reactions from onlookers, sometimes women themselves, who see the act as indecent and flashing. This despite the fact that health experts worldwide can’t emphasise the importance of breastfeeding enough, saying it should be a child’s sole source of food for the first six months.

While most middle- and lower-middle class mothers who travel in public transport rarely have an alternative to feeding their babies in public, women among the urban elite are making a conscious choice to nurse their children wherever the need arises.

This World Breastfeeding Week, ThePrint reached out to new mothers in Delhi and asked what their experience has been with breastfeeding in public.

“I do breastfeed my son in public and I think it is the most natural thing in the world,” said Melinda Kaur, mother of an eight-month-old. “Nature intended for babies to be nourished with a mother’s breast milk.

“It hurts me when I see women staring or passing comments. I understand that not all women can breastfeed. But the ones who do should not stare,” said Melinda.

Originally from Singapore, the homemaker has lived in India for nine years now. According to her, bar the odd stare, India is far more progressive than she thought it would be.

Explaining that she had not faced much difficulty nursing in public, she added, “I have fed him everywhere, in the mall, in a plane, in a park.”

“I do cover up, though,” she said, “It is no woman’s intention to flash.”

It was just recently that the Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi triggered a severe backlash over a cover featuring a breastfeeding woman. The cover was part of a campaign to rid breastfeeding in public places of the stigma it courts.

Though much of the criticism featured on the use of a model who wasn’t a mother, a lot of social media users said no one would mind breastfeeding in public if the “mothers covered up”. To this, several mothers pointed out that covering the face of children often irritated them. The campaign thus led to an extensive debate on public breastfeeding, with no small number of people arguing in support of mothers.

When someone took the magazine to the Kerala High Court, alleging the cover was “obscene”, the court said obscenity lay in the “eyes of the beholder” and dismissed the plea.

“You can’t expect me to go to a public toilet to breastfeed. There are germs there and my baby can get infected,” said Melinda.

Jyoti Dua, an information technology professional, echoed Melinda’s experience to say that, more often than not, it was women who raised eyebrows if one fed their child in public.

She added, however, that mothers needed to stop giving into such stares.

“If you feel ashamed of breastfeeding in public, you are giving in to the stigma. I think one should be proud of breastfeeding,” she said, adding that there needed to be a law to guarantee women’s right to breastfeed in public.

“I feel that babies should also be able to go out and have their food wherever. Breast milk is the right of every child and breastfeeding whenever the child is hungry is the right of every mother,” she added.

Roopam Gupta, a working mother of a six-month-old baby girl, said she was comfortable nursing her child in public places. Although her family was against it at first, they eventually they gave in, she added.

“There will be some initial hiccups regarding breastfeeding in public. I think, eventually, everything falls in place and everyone adjusts,” Gupta said.