A mother's complaint about the embarrassment she felt while
breast-feeding in public has led to a government decision to give
nursing moms more privacy.
If an ambitious plan put forward by the city's transportation
department goes through, in less than three years new mothers using
public transport will be able to breast-feed their babies in
special rooms instead of in public.
Such waiting halls have already come up at the Shanghai Railway
Station and the Shanghai South Railway Station, two major train
terminals in the city. The plan is to have a screened area at major
long- distance bus stations too.
Terminal Two of the Shanghai Pudong International Airport that
is now under construction will include baby-care rooms and the
domestic Hongqiao Airport, which is being expanded, will also
include such facilities, according to the Shanghai Urban
Construction Bureau.
It was a new mother's complaint filed nine months ago that is
responsible for all these measures, according to the standing
committee of the Shanghai Municipal Political Consultative
Conference.
On November 19, 2006, the woman surnamed Lu, from the city's
suburban Jiading District, appealed to the mayor for baby-care
rooms in public places in an e-mail. She described her embarrassing
breast-feeding experience on a train.
"My baby started crying when I was on the train that day and I
knew he was hungry," Lu said.
"I hesitated, but finally decided to feed him when he got louder
and louder.
"I knew some people were staring, some disapproved and I felt
embarrassed, but I had no choice."
Lu later browsed Internet forums for support, but discovered
that most people found mothers breast-feeding their children in
public, offensive.
Angry and frustrated, Lu wrote to the mayor's office, which
forwarded the e-mail to the Shanghai Women's Federation. The
federation then proposed baby-care facilities in public places at
the annual session of Shanghai's political consultative conference,
the city's advisory body, this January.
Shi Qiuqin, an official with the federation, told China
Daily that breast milk is the most healthy food for babies,
especially in the first six months of life, but lack of proper
facilities in public places makes it difficult for mothers to
breast-feed when they are out.
In 2006, more than 130,000 babies were born in the city. And it
is expected that another 130,000 will be born in this golden pig
year.
But according to a survey by the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), breast-feeding rates in the first four months of a baby's
life in China have been declining from around 76 percent in 1998 to
64 percent at present. And in big cities such as Shanghai, where
more women work, the rate is even lower.
Xu Jing, 30, a mother-to-be, said she would never consider
breast-feeding her baby in public.
"I will give my baby bottled milk in that situation," she
said.
Zhu, an office employee, said that she had encountered women
breast-feeding their babies in front of her in very crowded train.
"I was so embarrassed that I didn't know where to look. And I found
that most of the others standing nearby had the same look."
(China Daily August 30, 2007)