Actress Soha Ali Khan has come out in support of Neha Dhupia’s #FreedomToFeed initiative to raise awareness about breastfeeding.
In a video shared on her Instagram account, she opened up about her experience with her one-year-old daughter Inaaya.
She says in the video: “It was one of the most difficult aspects of being a new parent for me. As it is, I am so competitive by nature. I wanted to be the exclusive provider of nutrition and I was quite kicked by this wonderful, very humbling process that was happening to me. But it was also very demanding, very tiring and very frustrating, at times, to meet the rapidly increasing demands of a hungry baby,”
The actresses narrated an incident where she pumped breast milk in an airplane bathroom. She said: , “As a working parent, I found myself having to pump in the oddest of places. I have pumped in an airplane bathroom. When the seatbelt signs came on, I had to hurriedly dismantle everything, spilling lots of very precious breast milk along the way. When I came out and made it back to my seat, the air hostess asked me if I was doing my make-up inside. I was like, ‘Uh…no.'”
Breastfeeding is seen as something bad by many people in public but Soha thinks that it should be encouraged. “I think that they are doing something incredibly valuable, scientific and incredible. It needs to be supported, as opposed to being shunned,” she said.
Soha revealed that she could get through the challenges of motherhood, knowing that she was not alone. “The thing that encouraged me was finding support in other mothers and knowing that you’re not alone. Whatever issues you went through, whether it was latching, low milk supply, sleepless nights, frustration, being upset with your body and hormones…there were people out there who could relate to it and tell you that you were going to be okay and that it’s temporary,” she said.
During the ongoing World Breastfeeding Week, Neha announced her #FreedomToFeed campaign which encourages breastfeeding and cheers women to feed their babies whenever and wherever they want, without feeling apologetic about it.
