Breastfeeding mum was forced to feed standing up on rush hour train

Shameful.

A lot has been said and written about many commuters’ reluctance to give up their seat for a pregnant women, but what about a mum struggling to breastfeed on a moving train?

UK mum Kate Hitchens, 32, was travelling home to Wickford from London during rush hour earlier this week, and during the journey, had to breastfeed her six-month-old son, Charlie.

In an angry Instgram post, Hitchens explains how other commuters saw her nursing, but no-one offered her a seat until the very end of her 35-minute journey.

 

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On my way home from London on a packed commuter train and this is what I faced. What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breast feeding a wriggling and writhing 6 month old, 20lb baby?! The point here isn’t just that I found it difficult because I was nursing (although that was bloody difficult!), but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for around half an hour, or 3 stops! I could have asked, but I didn’t. I felt silly. I shouldn’t have to ask. Maybe some people didn’t see. I know for a fact some did; they made eye contact and actually smiled at me. I was thinking stop smiling and offer me your seat please! One lady looked up from her book and immediately offered me her seat, another lady then sat in it and when the lovely lady said ‘Oh excuse me I actually gave up my seat so this lady with a baby could sit down’ the sitting lady shrugged, plugged her earphones in and closed her eyes! I like to think that she needed that seat more than me, perhaps she was newly pregnant and in that early exhaustion period, perhaps she was knackered after a day at work, perhaps she was ill. Or perhaps she was just a twat. I hope not. I can somewhat understand not offering your seat to someone elderly; perhaps they might be offended you think they look old! I can understand not offering your seat to someone you suspect might be pregnant; maybe it’s just their time of the month or perhaps they are just naturaly curvy and they aren’t pregnant; perhaps you worry you might offend them. I cannot get my head around not offering a parent with a child a seat. Next time you see someone with a child on a train – if you’re able bodied and fit and healthy please offer your seat to them!

A post shared by Hitchens’ Kitchen BLW Club (@baby_led_weaning_club) on Sep 4, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT

The blogger, who is also mum to three-year-old Oliver, urged people to “be kinder” if they saw others struggling.

Hitchens said she could have asked for a seat, but “shouldn’t have to”. And we could not agree more.

“What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breastfeeding a wriggling and writhing six-month-old, 20lb baby,” she writes.

“The point here isn’t just that I found it difficult because I was nursing, but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for three stops. I shouldn’t have to ask.”

The mum-of-two and blogger, who writes about baby-led weaning on her blog, Hitchen’s Kitchen, said the journey on the packed commuter train left her feeling “embarrassed and flustered”.

Talking to the BBC, Hitchens explains:

“I had planned to be home for dinner time but the train I wanted to get was cancelled. I don’t make a big deal of breastfeeding and try to be discreet but everyone could see what I was doing,” she explains. “Physically, I felt quite uncomfortable as I didn’t have much to hold on to and Charlie was jiggling around as the train moved so it hurt. And when a lovely lady did get up to offer me her seat, another sat in it, put her headphones in and closed her eyes.”

The 32-year old is keen to stress that this isn’t about breast v bottle-feeding.

“It’s about being kind and showing common courtesy. If I saw someone struggling, whether it was with a baby, some heavy bags or a pile of books, I would give them my seat.”