my breastfeeding kebaya

breastfeeding kebaya

i am now starting this new blog from bali, where i recently moved. being a balinese who grew up in jakarta, there are lots of things that mesmerized me here. things that didn’t go quite just what i expected. for example, breastfeeding. in jakarta, it seems that breastfeeding is now the “it” thing. following the big campaign by ngos, government, artists , now a lot of new moms are aware the importance of bresatfeeding. breastfeeding in public is still a debate, but at least all the big malls have their own nursery room.

now, in bali, i have never thought that i would have to think through how to breastfed gus ata in our own cultural heritage outfit, i.e. the kebaya! being in bali for just three months, my social calendar were already full with events that has to go with kebaya. meaning, weddings, balinese birthdays (otonan), other religious ceremony, or just going to pura. here having just two pieces of kebaya (which i considered a lot during my jakarta life) is no good. a married woman must at least have 4 or 6 at least, to sustain her for at least 6 months (every 6 months new model will come out, so you need to purchase at least 1 just to go with the flow and not look like a terribly old old woman who wouldn’t change her look no matter what).

all right, for those of you who doesn’t understand my babbling about breastfeeding in kebaya, here’s the deal. kebaya is a long sleeve shirt, with buttons up front, wichh made according to your body contour. by this i mean a very tight shirt wrapping your body so no matter what your size is you will still look graceful. sounds good, right? but with a kebaya so tight the consequence is you must wear support underneath so your body would look uptight. by support we usually mean longtorso. of course we could always just wear our regular bras, but that wouldn’t be support enough for our body. not to mention the fabric. kebaya is usually made from brocades, chiffon, or cotton. for special occasions we usually use brocades cause it makes your skin look shinier, and there’s a richness about the fabric that would make you look fairer and elegant, no matter what your skin colour is.

that said, the funny thing is, i have never seen anyone breastfeed in kebaya, here in bali, where (i thought) things supposed to be more traditionally than jakarta, and breastfeeding is a tradional thing, our grandma and great great grandma have done it for hundreds of years. but no, honestly i feel discouraged to breastfeed my child during these occassion. once i did it, and an old woman asked me, doesn’t he drink bottled milk? i just assumed that the campaign for formula milk has been very succesful here that formula milk is still the ‘it’ thing here.

now, i have made myself an embroidery cotton kebaya with openings for breastfeeding, but it just not enough for a big occassions such as wedding of your brother in law where automatically you’re one of the wedding organizer. plus those breastfeeding openings made me look rather big in the chest, so what i did was making a dazzlingly- sheerthrough-tight kebaya complete with shining beads and all, and breastfeed gus ata in the room.