Pang, who is a breastfeeding mother and her 2-month-old baby at a shopping mall, enjoyed a well-equipped breastfeeding room for around 30 mins. Photograph by Kelley Chan.
“I would rather hide at home, since it is hard to breastfeed in public areas,” Miss Chan decided not to go outside after she gave birth.
In her seventh month of pregnancy, the lady told the reporters, “Most of my friends as mothers are breastfeeding their young babies. I also plan to do so.” She was willing to breastfeed as long as possible. When asking why she was hanging out alone in the shopping mall in Kowloon Bay, Chan explained, “My free time is less than three months. When my baby is borned, I would not be able to go out as free as I want.” She would have to hide herself at home to breastfeed.
Miss Chan, who is in her seventh month of pregnancy. Photograph by Gigi Lee
Medical field requires “breastfeeding on demand” --- responding flexibly to baby’s hunger cues. It means initiating feedings whenever the baby requests them, and continuing each feeding session until the baby is satisfied. For moms in Hong Kong, however, breastfeeding on demand is particularly challenging when they leave home. Many people are uncomfortable to see mothers breastfeeding around, and mothers are unlikely to find a breastfeeding room in every public space. Breastfeeding in the public is still not regarded as normal in the society. According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Hong Kong, 86 percent of mothers giving birth in 2014 had initiated breastfeeding on discharge from hospital. However, only 27 percent of babies were exclusively breastfed at four months of age, which is not appropriate for achieving “optimal growth, development and health” of infants according to World Health Organization (WHO) . So the UNICEF thought it was time to “Say Yes to Breastfeeding”, which is a campaign launched in August to encourage restaurants, shopping malls to provide more support to breastfeeding mothers.
(Photo: UNICEF Hong Kong)
Policy support from the authority is not enough. Last legislative counsel was held in 2007, and the most updated policy was released in 2008. Anyhow, little has turned better in these years.
“Government said they had worked a lot, lots of promotional work, etc. However, their efforts are not that helpful. When it comes to dealing with the problem, government becomes overcautious. They start to play ‘Tai Chi’ (太極). ” Noted by Ms. Miu Tang, the chairwoman of Hong Kong Breastfeeding Mothers’ Association. She was not satisfied that different government departments shifted their responsibilities onto each other. “Actually, is it that difficult to have a cross-sectoral cooperation?” “In fact, the government doesn’t pay much effort to implement breastfeeding friendly policy or to improve breastfeeding culture in the society,” Mr. Joseph Lee, the chairman of Panel on Health Services at the Legislative Council, agreed.
photo 2 Is it a breastfeeding room? a changing room? or a toilet? The public does not understand what a breastfeeding rooms is meanwhile it is always misused. Photograph by Kelley Chan.
A survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong shows that nearly 90% of respondents agree on improving breastfeeding facilities by legislative procedure. However, Lee suggested it should not be a good approach, and could even invite unnecessary challenges. “Legislation is a waste of time. It turns this issue from a ‘normal behavior’ to an ‘abnormal behavior’,” Legislator Joseph Lee emphasized. He hinted that shareholders including government, business sector and new mothers would “suffer great losses” after breastfeeding is legislated and enforced as law. What breastfeeding mothers can do since the government could not be account for? From Lee’s perspective, “normalization” should be a “positive approach”, which means seeing breastfeeding in the public as “natural” in people’s everyday life. In order to normalize the natural practice and arouse society’s awareness, public education as well as policy support should be primary solutions. “Breastfeeding value and policy is just a chicken and egg situation,” expressed by Ms. Palin Ngaotheppitak, Acting Senior Corporate Communications Manager from the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
EOC spokesperson Ms. Palin Ngaotheppitak (Photograph by Gigi Lee)
“We can not cultivate the value without support from policy. If there are better policies so that more mothers can breastfeed in the public, people will be more likely to regard it as normal,” she added.
But at first, Joseph Lee suggested that enough facilities are needed to implement breastfeeding friendly policy. Otherwise it will spark conflicts, thus the colleagues in the front line would not carry it out. Some workplaces, like Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Jebsen and Macquarie, have normalized breastfeeding in their offices. They told reporters that they had set up breastfeeding rooms in response to employees’ demand. “We received a lot of requests from new mother employees to use a meeting room to pump breast milk. Since we were renovating offices at that time, why not set up a breastfeeding room?” Ms. Bianca Wong, Group HR and Corporate Communications Director of Jebsen explained the incentive of providing breastfeeding facility. “Till now, mothers employees and other colleagues are satisfied with the system,”Andrea Chan, Division Director of Sales Trading in Hong Kong from Macquarie said.
An well equipped breastfeeding room at Macquarie. The company has a well-organized internal booking system that the breastfeeding room can be used in an appropriate way. (Photo Source: Macquarie)
However, fostering breastfeeding friendly culture could not merely rely on companies themselves. Ms. Ngaotheppitak proposed that government should set up an example by setting up enough breastfeeding rooms in public places for private companies to follow.
She also deemed it essential for government to guide public education. For example, it could convey the message that “the more breastfeeding facilities companies can provide in workplace, the more they could benefit,” such as saving personnel cost of retraining new staffs to takeover mothers’ work.
Legislator Joseph Lee (Photo Gigi Lee/Kelley Chan)
The legislator Joseph Lee emphasized other shareholders’ responsibility. “Every party has its own responsibility. Everyone has to work together. Don’t throw the ball to each other,” He advocated.
Normalization of this natural practice is a long term effort. As Ms. Wong from Jebsen indicated, “We cannot suddenly change all things overnight because of one small action.” But joint effort of the whole society is in urgent demand. Ms. Ngaotheppitak pointed out that “Hong Kong, as an international business city, the majority of its child-bearing females are working.” It should not force them to hide when breastfeeding is viewed as an abnormal behavior.
A pregnant mother is working with colleagues. Staff in the company expect everything goes on as usual after she gives birth and breastfeeds her baby. (Source UNICEF Hong Kong)
A meeting room can be multi-purpose. It could change to a breastfeeding room when it is necessary. (Photo Source: UNICEF Hong Kong)