World Breastfeeding Week: Bipasha Basu shares her emotional breastfeeding journey with daughter Devi FilmyMeet

Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover welcomed their first child, a baby girl, on November 12, 2022. And her journey as a mother has had many ups and downs. Full-time mum to Devi Basu Singh Grover, Bipasha says being a mum is the “best job ever”.

On World Breastfeeding Week, Bipasha talks about her breastfeeding journey and says, “Breastfeeding builds a beautiful bond between a mother and a child as the time of feed you are one unit. It is the most amazing feeling, a natural process that every mother goes through. My breast milk started immediately so Devi was given the breast right after she was born while the operation continued. It is wondrous to see an infant knows how to suckle right after being born. I had guidance from my Doula Sanam, the sisters at the hospital about breastfeeding and positions to hold the baby which helped.”

‘Proper guidance helps’

Thankful for the guidance she received from her gynaecologist, lactation expert and doula, Bipasha says as a mother, she was so emotional when she couldn’t breastfeed Devi in the first three months of her birth due to holes in the latter’s heart. “We had to wait till the third month and had her operation. Immediately post op, she started taking on to the breast so strongly. It was magical. I was so emotional that I couldn’t breastfeed her earlier. I would express and give her milk in a bottle. I had decided to breastfeed her for a year but I continued till 18 months. It was easy to wean her off as she’s a good kid. It took a month. When I was weaning her off, I went through a roller coaster of emotions,” she says.

‘Breastfeeding journey can be complicated in normal circumstances too’

Bipasha recalls how she expressed milk and “pumped seven times a day” which was a “hard and painful” process and understands the effort mothers take to express milk. “Breastfeeding journey can be complicated in normal circumstances too, while here Devi had to get surgery. If you have help from people around, it is important to be aware about things,” the actor urges.
 

‘Normalise breastfeeding’
While it is not the case with every mother but Bipasha hopes we can “normalise breastfeeding”. “It has to happen because when you give birth to a baby and it is a breastfeed baby, you need to give the baby nutrition at the right time. That should not stop your life. Many women have to work, go out and do things and that doesn’t mean your child is not directly breastfeed. Yes you can express, but that is tedious. The right nutrition is best when you give direct feed. It is the most normal thing in the world to have babies and to feed them. It should not offensive anywhere. There should be provisions made for women, to make sure there’s enough space to feed a baby. I have not faced any stigma as I haven’t breastfeed in public, but sadly in our country, we are still not that evolved that we would be okay with a woman breastfeeding in open. This is a personal choice and no one can judge you.”