Breastfeeding is when a mother feeds her baby milk from her breasts, sometimes expressed into a cup or a bottle. Breastmilk contains lots of nutrients that help our babies grow healthy and strong; moreover, breastfeeding has natural healing effects for both mommy and baby and helps create a mother-baby bond.

Being a mother is not easy, and being an exclusively breastfeeding mother has its challenges. As a mother who has exclusively breastfed and a trainee breastfeeding peer counsellor, I can attest that some women struggle with breastfeeding in public, especially first-time moms.

Breastfeeding moms are more comfortable feeding in their own homes, health-care facilities, or around other breastfeeding mommies. In extreme instances, breastfeeding mommies look for isolated spaces to get privacy or, when left with no choice, give their breast to the baby but cover up with a facecloth or a receiving blanket. 

Some may go as far as covering the baby’s face or express in a feeding bottle when travelling. Women would, in some cases, share how they would get consent from elderly men in public to feed their crying babies, while younger men harassed them with inappropriate comments.

I remember this one time when I took a taxi; there was a young lady with a newborn wrapped in a pink blanket. When the taxi got to a freeway, her baby started crying uncontrollably, but she couldn’t soothe her. Frustrated commuters started passing aggressive commentary; older women asked her to hand them the baby, even asking her to feed her. However, she continued rocking her baby. 

In hindsight, I believe what might have been the main factor was that an elderly man was sitting next to the mother. Perhaps she was too shy to pull her breast out – next to a male stranger – and didn’t know whether to cover up or not, owing to patriarchal undertones that police female nudity.

Months ago, I came across a social media post with a picture of a celebrity mom breastfeeding her toddler in a supermarket. Of course, people glorified her for her “bravery”, yet non-celebrity moms have been doing this all along in churches, restaurants, supermarkets, taxi ranks, and even in bank queues. Such societal double standards create a stigma around something as normal as giving babies food and quenching their thirst.

What we need is a safe community for breastfeeding mothers. It should start with our families eliminating the body-policing culture, such as pulling down our clothes in an attempt to help cover our breasts or offering a towel or even a private room during family gatherings. Most importantly, society needs to stop sexualising breasts and learn that one of their main functions is providing nutrition for babies.

We should not be influenced by social media into doing something our mothers and grandmothers have been doing for ages. It does not matter where breastfeeding is done; what matters is your baby being fed and healthy.