Blogger is shamed by another mum for breastfeeding her baby in a shopping centre
A mum was verbally attacked for nursing her 15 month old son in public [Photo: Instagram/claimyourmumjo]
Just when you thought we might be done with all the mum-shaming, another mother is verbally attacked for breastfeeding her son in a shopping centre.
As many nursing mums will understand, when your baby’s hangry, you know he’s got to be fed, but finding somewhere appropriate to feed him can be a near impossible task. This was the exact dilemma mum-of-two, Kate Louise from Victoria, Australia found herself in earlier this week.
She’d taken her two sons to a shopping centre and as it was the school holidays the parents’ room was “standing room only.” So when her youngest boy, who is one, needed to be fed she decided to feed him sitting on a sofa in the shopping centre.
But as she discreetly nursed her little one, she was approached by another mother and her teenage daughter who criticised her for breastfeeding in public.
“The mother charged in my direction,” Kate recalled on her Claim Your Mumjo blog “‘That is not on’ she spits at me, ‘Go and do that where my daughter and I don’t have to see you.’”
[Photo: Instagram/claimyourmumjo]
Kate said she told the women her baby needed to be fed and she wasn’t going to move. But at that point the woman told her, “that is not a baby, he is way too old to be feeding off your t*t.”
Kate explained that she was starting to get a little frustrated at this point as her four-year-old son was also sitting next to her. But that’s when the woman’s daughter also decided to make a remark.
“Her daughter chimed in and blew me away, ‘And you look like a slut.’ To which her mother laughed and gave her a high five as they turned to walk off,” Kate wrote in her blog post.
The mum was left reeling after the attack but describes how an elderly lady stepped in to offer some support.
“A lovely old lady who I had seen watching the interaction came up to me and gave me a hug and encouraged me to continue feeding Oscar as long as I want and ensured me that I looked beautiful,” she writes.
“That is what we should be doing! Loving and supporting one another. Whatever your choices as a parent, happy, healthy children are what is most important.”
[Photo: Instagram/claimyourmumjo]
Since sharing her blog post, Kate explained that other mothers have also stepped forward to offer their support and share similar stories of mum-shaming.
“The reaction has been amazing. Mothers from everywhere have been so supportive and warming,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“There’s also been lots of disappointment regarding the young girl growing up being told breastfeeding is wrong. I’m a midwife too so I’m quite passionate about supporting mothers.”
This latest shaming incident comes as a recent survey revealed that six out of 10 women who breastfeed take steps to hide it in public and a third feel embarrassed or uncomfortable nursing outside the home.
The poll, carried out by Public Health England’s (PHE’s) parenting advice service, Start4Life, found that one in five believed people did not want them to breastfeed in public and one in 10 who chose not to nurse their baby were influenced by the worry of doing so outside the home.
Have you ever been shamed for breastfeeding in public? Let us know @YahooStyleUK
