Is breastfeeding in public vulgar or a necessity?

By Xin Xin | China Daily | Updated: 2015-08-08 08:08

What do you think of breastfeeding in public? Awkward? Uncivilized? On August 1, there were more than 10,000 mothers doing this at the same time around the world.

In China, more than 500 breastfeeding mothers and children participated in the Big Latch On in several cities, such as Shanghai, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chengdu, Wenzhou and Guangzhou. In Kunming, the youngest participant was 3 months old and the oldest baby is 4.

Big Latch On is an international event that groups of breastfeeding women coming together to breastfeed their child at a set time for 1 minute. It is an spontaneous event originally from New Zealand as part of World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7).

Zhang Jiayue, founder of Shenyang Breastfeeding Mothers Club. She is the organizer of the Big Latch On in Shenyang. Zhang is one of the first people who planning and organizing the first Big Latch On in China 2012. This is the fourth year she has participated in this event.

Zhang is also a mother of two children and she has been breastfeeding her kids for more than four years. Zhang has two daughters, one is 4 and the other is 2. She never has stopped nursing her older daughter although she was pregnant with the second one.

"The purpose of nursing in public is not to attract attention but to promoting a concept of breastfeeding to the society. We hope the government can establish more nursing rooms in the public area to solve the inconvenient situation." Zhang says.

Wang Guoqiang, vice-minister at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at a news conference in May 2014: There are only 534 nursing rooms in 64 cities around China. 115 of them are set up in workplaces and 419 in public areas.

Zhu Dan is the mother of a 8-month-old baby girl in Beijing. "Feeding my daughter in public areas really bothers me. An infant at her age needs to be feed every four hours. To solve this problem, I always calculate time and distance before we go out. I have to make sure we can come back home within four hours. Sometimes if the traffic jam happens or the distance is too long, I would also make her wait for five hours. Occasionally, I breastfeed her in my car. I will choose underground parking because it's darker there. But the air conditioning is terrible and it is hot. My daughter and I are all wet even though the air conditioner is on."

"I hope there could be more nursing rooms established in the public areas. In this case we can have more places to go, instead of keeping her at home." Zhu added, " Recently, there are more and more big shopping malls starting to set up nursing rooms, but the situation is not so well. In addition, because another function of nursing rooms is dipper changing, there are always some males going in and out. I think the number of nursing rooms should be increased and the environment can be improved," Zhu says.

Zhang Qiaoyi, 27, lives in Houston, Texas, the US. Her boy has just passed his 100th day. " It is very common in the US for a mother to breastfeed her child in a public area such as restaurant, park or coffee shop. Mothers are always wearing a nursing cover, which is a apron-like cloth. No one will stare at you and will avoid you politely so mothers can feel relaxed and natural. Most of the big shopping malls have a nursing room but not all of them. I usually nurse my kid in my car, or bottle-feed him with prepared breast milk. The fitting room of the woman's clothing store is my other option since it is spacious and the sales clerks are friendly. "

Wei Yuan has been living in Singapore for four years and her baby is about to be born in two months. "Singapore is a breastfeeding-friendly country. People are very pro-breastfeeding and they show their respect and supports to breastfeeding mothers. From time to time, I came across mothers who were with their nursing covers breastfeeding their babies in public, restaurants, cafes or parks. No one would give them the shaming look. "

"Nursing rooms are easily accessible in most public places, for example, shopping malls, exhibition centers, museums, and even some open areas such as national parks or amusement parks. I would feel surprised if a nursing room is difficult to find in most of these places," Wei says, "Although it is a public facility, the nursing room is designed to protect family privacy. An electronic sign shows vacant/occupied right outside each nursing room. You will hardly find a messy nursing room as people in Singapore usually clean up the room after use. "

Breastfeeding is the best food for the infants. According to The World Health Organization, babies under 6 months should be breastfeeding exclusively, and they are suggested to be breastfed until 2 years old or more with other supplementary food.

Song Dan, an ICBLC (International Board of Lactation Consultant) examiner, says it is too difficult to count the total number of nursing rooms in China now, but it does have a big gap and a huge need.

"The top three nursing places are a back seat, a restaurant's corner and a ladies' room," Song says.