Would you breastfeed while out on your weekly jog? This mum does.
Nicole Broadhurst (29) from Brisbane, Australia won’t hesitate to breastfeed her baby while she’s out and about doing chores – and will even squeeze in a feed in the middle of her weekly park run if needs be!
The strange glances she gets from passers-by don’t put her off feeding three-month-old Alexis.
“I am of the belief that no matter where I am – grocery shopping, local park, theme park, farm – if Alexis is hungry I am going to feed her,” mum-of-two Nicole told Kidspot.
“I am not going to make my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Hannah stop what she’s doing and make her sit in a parents room for up to an hour where she will go stir crazy.”
Nicole has completed 64 park 5km runs on Saturday mornings in a Brisbane park over the past two years, but of course she has to slow to a walking pace when she's feeding the tot.
“I have had to feed Alexis three times during the park run,” Nicole said. “Some people just stare but mostly I get encouraging words from other parents. One of my fellow park runners call it a milkshake when I walk and feed!”
The weekly 7am run is a family affair. Her husband Mark runs ahead with their older child, Hannah, and doubles back to join Nicole and Alexis when he has finished.
And Nicole isn’t just at home breastfeeding out in the open air.
She's also quite happy to feed Alexis at the supermarket, even if it means getting the odd strange glance from passersby.
“I have been congratulated by another mum when I was breastfeeding while grocery shopping and she also added she didn’t have the courage to do the same,” she said.
“Hannah will walk with her dad and if needs be, I can push the trolley and feed Alexis at the same time – it’s just like pushing a pram and feeding her. If people want to stare I say ‘go ahead’ I am only doing something that women have been doing for centuries.”
Despite the negativity surrounding public breastfeeding, Nicole is on a mission to get other mums to put their feeds aside and feed their kids - when and wherever they like.
“I think other women don’t like people staring and you hear on the news that another restaurant, cafe, plane has told another mum not to feed in public,” she says.
“I am not going to be put in a toilet to feed my girl. Would you eat your dinner in the bathroom?
“I hope by other mums reading this and seeing the pictures they will be brave enough to do the same.”
Well, we’re not sure we’d want to breastfeed on the go ourselves, but we applaud this woman’s confidence. Mums should be free to feed wherever they feel comfortable, and whenever their baby needs them.
