Around 80 to 100 mothers gathered at Tai Wai MTR Station on Saturday afternoon for a “breastfeeding flash mob” in order to protest discrimination against public breastfeeding.
At 3pm on Saturday, the mums armed themselves with signs reading “Breastfeeding everywhere!”, and “Mama Flash” before feeding their children on the station concourse, at platforms, and while calmly riding a Ma On Shan line train towards Che Kung Temple Station.
Organisers MamaMilk Baby Alliance, a local breastfeeding support group, told the SCMP that they were fighting for legislation protecting nursing mothers’ right to breastfeed in public, while raising awareness about breastfeeding in Hong Kong.
A spokeswoman for the group said local mothers encounter multiple obstacles when trying to breastfeed in public, despite growing awareness of the health benefits of breastmilk.
According to the World Health Organisation, children should be breastfed for the first six months of their lives. However, a 2013 survey by the Department of Health indicates that only 2.3 percent of Hong Kong mothers exclusively fed their children breastmilk during that period.
Results from a UNICEF survey released last week showed that while 83 percent of Hong Kong-based mums who responded had breastfed in public, 40 percent of those women reported those experiences to be unpleasant.
MamaMilk Baby Alliance urged the government to introduce legislation protecting nursing mothers’ right to breastfeed in public spaces, and in turn remove stigma surrounding the (really rather prosaic, when you think about it) action of feeding one’s child in public.
Got a tip? Send it to us at hongkong@coconuts.co