World Breastfeeding Week: Dia Mirza expresses concern over lack of safe spaces for breastfeeding in public

Breastfeeding Week begins on August 1 and ends on August 7. This year the theme is “Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility”. This theme primarily focuses on the contribution of breastfeeding for survival, health and wellbeing and the imperative to protect breastfeeding across all spectrums of society.

This entire week is celebrated to encourage new mothers to breastfeed their children as it is important for the child’s proper nutrition, growth and development. It also helps in protecting children from various childhood illnesses. 

Dia Mirza who recently became a mother in May this year shared her concern over creating a safe space in the society for all new mothers to breastfeed their children. She spoke of the challenges of breastfeeding in public and further noted that there is a lack of safe spaces for new mothers.

The actress expressed her views about breastfeeding by saying how aware she has become of the lack of safe spaces for new mothers and how difficult it is for these mothers to breastfeed their babies without any privacy. She further added that public breastfeeding triggers shame and judgment. 

"In Belgium, breastfeeding in public is protected by law, but in India, we need to bring about a systematic shift in societal attitude. Feeding a child should be considered a natural act, but it triggers so much shame and judgment when done in public," she added.

Dia Mirza also noted that the World Health Organization advises breastfeeding infants only for the first six months. Those not breastfed are most likely to die in the early months because of a lack of nutrition that is essential for the babies. "It should worry us that India continues to have one of the highest rates of malnutrition and infant mortality," said Dia.

In July earlier this year, Dia Mirza took to social media and shared a post across Instagram to reveal that she and Vaibhav had become parents as they welcomed their newborn baby. 

In her post, she said, "To have a child is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” 

“These words perfectly exemplify Vaibhav & my feelings right now. Our heartbeat, our son Avyaan Azaad Rekhi was born on May 14th. Having arrived early, our little miracle has since then been cared for by tireless nurses and doctors in the Neonatal ICU.”

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