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EXCLUSIVE: World Breastfeeding Week: Vocalising it or starting a chatter around it is important: Neha Dhupia
Neha Dhupia has been very vocal about spreading awareness on breastfeeding, and why it needs to be normalised.
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from August 1 to 7, and Neha Dhupia, who is expecting her second child, has been very vocal about spreading awareness on breastfeeding, and why it needs to be normalised. In an exclusive chat with Pinkvilla, Neha informed that she has received a lot of support for the cause.
She states, “As far as normalising breastfeeding is concerned, I’ll give you a small example. When we started Freedom To Feed, and why we started it because I felt the amount of discomfort (when) going out and feeding my daughter, when I was out in public. You know, you don’t understand that a woman goes through a lot of things, and one of the main things is postpartum. You don’t want to be left alone. Sometimes you just want to take a walk in the mall.”
I was like it’s great that they have a breastfeeding spot in the mall. I asked where it is, and that I would love to use it too. So they said there’s a sofa in the toilet. I was aghast.
Neha Dhupia
Neha says that after starting Freedom To Feed, she reached out to a really large mall in Mumbai, asking if they would like to collaborate with her on the cause. “I was like, if they would like to associate with us, and give women a little bit of space. At one time in a mall, I don’t think there will be more than two to three women breastfeeding at the same time. So you don’t really need that much real estate to make it comfortable for them. So they were like, ‘no we have this’, and I was like it’s great that they have a breastfeeding spot in the mall. I asked where it is, and that I would love to use it too. So they said there’s a sofa in the toilet. I was aghast that people still treat it like that,” shares Neha.
She further adds, “The point is - if it’s meal time, you won’t give that sofa in the toilet to the restaurant owner right? It’s the same thing. Why would you do this to new mums and their kids? You need to normalise it by giving them spaces, physically and mentally. Because we are going to do it, in any case. If our child is crying, I am not going to worry about you looking at me, or someone else looking at me, or waiting for a cloth. I am going to go for it. There’s a being that comes out of me, and the next second you don’t know where this love comes from, that you are ready to take a bullet for this person. This is something mums are going to do, so why would you not give them the space, why would you not normalise it, and why would you sexualise it?,” questions Neha.
This is something mums are going to do, so why would you not give them the space, why would you not normalise it, and why would you sexualise it?
Neha Dhupia
She also stands against sexualisation of breastfeeding. “The minute you say breasts, it’s like ‘oh let’s just talk about sexualising it’. No! You have to understand this is breastfeeding, it’s the most natural thing we have all gone through it. There are mothers who write to us saying that they are sitting in their own balcony…. I get it some of us want to do it in private. If I am at home, I don’t want to do it in the living room, I want to do it in the comfort of my bedroom - I want my backrest, and I want my familiar surroundings - I want all that, so that’s also fine. But I’m going to go back to the mother who wrote to us - she’s sitting in her own balcony, and if I want to get some fresh air and do it, it doesn’t mean that just because you can look into my balcony, you have got to look at me every three hours I take my baby out to feed. Not okay, it’s not cool. So I really think that talking about it, vocalising, starting communities, or starting a chatter around it is very important,” Neha concludes.
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