Welcome to Malaysia.
June 9th, 2010Landing in Malaysia feels comfortable, like home for me, almost. This is strange because I’ve only been here twice before. After moving to my own private 3 seats on my Air Asia flight from Hanoi, we land and before I know it I’m on a bus hurtling towards the city. I drift off, waking a few moments later to the muslim woman next to me breastfeeding her super cute toddling baby. With not an inch of skin exposed, I wonder how she did it. I sneak furtive glances, but can’t get good enough of a look to see the process when she changes sides. Is this allowed? Is it accepted and acceptable? I know what I think, but I don’t make any of the rules.
The boy gets up, wanders the aisles and comes back for another feed just one more time. Again I miss the contortions the woman goes through.
Welcome to Malaysia.
June 9th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
As far as I know, most Muslims revere breastfeeding, and breastfeeding women. Apparently the prophet said some very positive things about breastfeeding - it’s sad that most of the Muslim women I see in Sydney bottlefeed, maybe because that is all they see here.
Thanks for sharing this lovely story, it’s nice to hear that breastfeeding is accepted and encouraged in other cultures (even when the baby can walk).