Public Breastfeeding Mothers: You Go Girls!
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In what should really not be a problem in today’s society, breastfeeding in public has once again been shunted to the forefront of controversy by those behind the times. Self-described non-profit organization “Website for Beijing Wangshi” (meaning “The Past of Beijing”) posted a photo to its Weibo account on November 27 that depicted a mother breastfeeding her baby on the Beijing subway and commenting on the picture by saying “it is the Beijing subway, not a countryside bus.” Astonishingly, the post rebuked the woman for exposing her “sexual organ.”
As the woman in the photo later told the Beijing News, she had taken her three-month-old daughter to hospital before getting on the subway, and the infant was crying and coughing in obvious distress, calmed only by her mother’s feeding.
Despite the Beijing Wangshi account only having around 200 followers, the post sparked public indignation and heated discussion on social media, with most online comments calling the use of the term “sexual organ” to describe breastfeeding as rude and ignorant. After being bombarded by more than 22,000 comments, the original post was deleted by the blogger several days later.
More of a concern than a single instance is the growing intolerance by some of breastfeeding in public. In October, a young mother from Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, described in painful detail on Weibo the harassment she endured when breastfeeding her baby on a bus. “My baby was crying too hard because we had undergone such a long journey by bus, so I had no choice but to breastfeed her, only to see a lady beside us criticizing by saying ‘shame on you’.” Her complaint found a number of supportive remarks, yet there were more than a few netizens that candidly expressed their worries for those on the bus and how awkward they might have felt.
Chinese society has long regarded public exposure of one’s body with conservatism and taboos. However, more and more people are beginning to demonstrate their open-mindedness on the issue, proclaiming it as a natural human behavior. In June 2014, a flash mob involving 20 young mothers showed up at a park in Zhejiang’s Leqing City. The women walked to a grassy area from different sides, each holding a baby and wearing a yellow ribbon around their wrist, and then all sat down as one to breastfeed their babies, their husbands behind them for support and to take photos to publicize the issue.
It truly seems that Chinese attitudes towards public breastfeeding are changing for the better. A good many Chinese netizens referred to Victoria Donda Perez as a “heroine” after the Argentinian Member of Parliament breastfed her baby during a congress conference and the story went viral after. As in China, Perez’s decision to feed her baby when needed was the subject of great support and criticism.
In August, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China urged that greater efforts be made to encourage breast-feeding by proclaiming that “guaranteeing women employees’ rights to breast-feeding is very important to decrease the mortality rate of infants and promote their healthy growth.” It could quite easily be argued that public services in China do not cater to the needs of breastfeeding mothers. In China’s urban areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, lactation rooms can be found in public places, and some companies have these rooms for new mothers returning to work, yet a Beijing News investigation in late November reported that many of these rooms remain locked throughout the day. In comparison, breastfeeding rooms are prevalent in many Western countries that are perhaps more breastfeeding-friendly.
Regardless of a person’s views, breastfeeding in public should never met with discriminatory or offensive censure. Mothers that breastfeed in public are not doing so to offend. They are simply trying to pacify and nourish their child. Society needs to get with the times and increase the number of public facilities available so that new mothers are able to feed their babies without threat of embarrassment by public shaming.
why that jerk secretly took photo of the mother breastfeeding, gross!
“Chinese society has long regarded public exposure of one’s body with conservatism and taboos.” Erm what about the kids who have the split trousers that expose their behinds? In Beiijing, I have seen grandparents and parents happily allow their precious little brats urinate and deficate in public: streams of piss flowing across the floors of subways, and to my utter disgust, a child taking an actual sh*t in a take-away box in a train station – and their parents just look on.
Its fine to breastfeed in public. When you gotta go, you gotta go, but one could try to be a little more discreet? As a woman, a bumpy subway, swarming with commuters hardly seems to be a desirable place for such an acitivity. The mother could have gone to one of the subway station’s bathrooms, where she would have more privacy.
Also, its hypocritical to criticise someone for being ‘gross’ and taking a photo of a breast-feeding mother, when the very article also uses a picture in the middle of such an activity.
*a picture of several women in the middle of such an activity.
I don’t see what the big deal is. When you see a woman breastfeeding in public, simply look away. No one is forcing an offended party to watch. Granted, on a subway can be crowded, but sometimes there is not much choice. What is even more of a concern is the lack of company amenities for breastfeeding mothers. i know of at least two new mothers who had to pump in a squatter toilet stall or janitor’s closet because their work did not provide them any space, and I imagine that this is the norm.
I guess its just a wee case of ‘tit-for-tat’, my friend.
@YoLo_4EVA i was referring to the person by his sneaky behavior, nothing to do with the picture.
A friend of mine knew an Australian woman who still breast-feeds her kids eventhough they are 10 and 12 years old. According to the mother, continuing to breast feed, produces hormones that make her retain her youthful glow. And apparently the kids are utter brats. One of the weirdest things, I heard in a long time!