Jasmine Wing gets it off her chest.
Every so often the debate about breast feeding in public breaks out again. It usually starts with a man telling a woman to hide what her breasts were made for – feeding her child; then, right on cue, a phalanx of outraged femmes comes marching onto the scene.
In the run-up to Christmas, the latest instance of this routine centred on Claridge’s, the exclusive West End hotel. A young mother lunching with her mother was discreetly breastfeeding her new born baby, when she was told to place a large white napkin over the suckling infant’s head to avoid ‘causing anyone offence’. The ridiculous white napkin only drew more attention to the poor woman.
The incident went viral, the Free to Feed campaign staged a protest outside Claridge’s the following day, and, equally predictably, Nigel Farage got in on the act. His first response, reportedly, is that women should ‘sit in the corner’, though he later limited himself to saying that they should just not feed their babies in an ostentatious manner.
How can it be that this society remains so infantile about breastfeeding in public? In the twenty first century our outlooks and policies on countless issues are constantly shifting. The gender pay gap is at its lowest in history, gay marriage has now been legalised in Britain and transsexuals are widely accepted. Yet women in the UK are continually humiliated for attending to their babies in the most natural way.
The latest humiliation may have happened up West, but I am not convinced that East London is any more grown up about it.
In Stratford, Westfield East offers cubicles for women to breastfeed in privacy, in addition to spacious parent rooms which include sofas and spaces for toddlers to play in. John Lewis’ in Westfield also offers a pleasant parent and baby room with seating. I am assured that these facilities are intended not as a place of banishment; the aim is for women to choose whether to breastfeed in public or in private, using these facilities. But I wonder whether their very existence doesn’t put pressure on women to hide themselves away while breastfeeding.
I can’t stop myself feeling riled about this issue – the way that breasts are considered best out in the open when it comes to the titillation of men (Page Three in the Sun is the most established version of this; cleavage-mania in Chinese TV drama is the most recent example); while women are frowned upon as potentially offensive for doing the most natural thing – feeding their children.
As if, having survived pregnancy, going into labour, and the broken sleep that comes with every new addition to the family, they haven’t got enough on their plate.
I’ve got zero tolerance for ‘concerns’ about breastfeeding. To me, every little ‘tut-tut’ seems to echo the oppression of women by macho males. Instead, I want to echo the sentiments of blogger KELLYMOM: ‘The more often mothers nurse in public, the more accepted it will become.’
My advice to anyone who can’t bare to see breastfeeding in public: stay at home.
Jasmine Wing is Rising East’s Health and Wellbeing editor.
Contact: jasminenatashawing@gmail.com. Twitter: @jasmineenatasha