Nursing Rooms Need To Stop Being An Afterthought

Public nursing rooms are a mainstay for every parent that goes out with their baby in the early years. Unfortunately, these rooms often garner a bad reputation. Here are five really simple changes that could dramatically improve the nursing room experience in Singapore.

I was once told, when I asked where I could nurse or change my baby at a wedding reception at a posh hotel, that there was nowhere to do so. There was no suggestion of improvisation, like using an unused room.

On several other occasions, I had to politely ask cleaners, retail staff, and mall shoppers if they could leave the nursing room because I needed to attend to my baby. ICYDK, many shopping mall nursing rooms end up being rest or lunch areas for the cleaners, and public water refill points due to the water dispensers placed inside.

A cleaner even told me: “It’s okay, I don’t mind you changing her diaper. You can go ahead and I’ll just sit here.” I had to explain as patiently as I could that I’d like some privacy for my baby please, and thank you very much.

Today, I no longer use nursing rooms, as I’ve switched to nursing my child on the go, using a nursing cover. But reading about one mum’s experience with a mouldy nursing room at Isetan Scotts brought back horrifying nursing room memories for me, over the last decade of being a mum.

Singapore, let me say this loud and clear: we can do much better with providing adequate nursing rooms for parents and their children.

Since the bar is so low where nursing rooms are concerned, these simple suggestions I’m about to offer would be considered game changers.

Here, presenting a mum-of-five’s humble wish list for Singapore nursing rooms.

My wish list for nursing rooms in Singapore

1. Clean nursing rooms

This may seem like a no-brainer but honestly, the vast majority of nursing rooms in Singapore need to be deep cleaned and aired out. And I’m not talking about a once-a-year kind of deep cleaning. Nursing rooms deserve to be scrubbed, scoured, and sprayed till they’re squeaky clean, daily.

Of course, nursing mums must do their part and clean up after they are done. I believe a greater sense of responsibility among mums would go a long way in maintaining nursing rooms and preserving their hygiene.

Perhaps it’s a chicken and egg situation, where mums don’t feel like they need to keep the room clean because it was just so gross to begin with.

I’ve seen my fair share of dirty nursing rooms, even at malls popular with young families. Cockroaches, ants, dropped food, mildew, weird stains, funky odours – I’ve seen and smelt them all.

Mall management folks in Singapore, could you please take note and step up the cleaning? 

2. Fully functional nursing rooms

As a mum, I’m not asking for bells and whistles in a nursing room. 

A clean, conducive environment that allows me to feed my baby or pump milk in quiet privacy is all I really hope for. No need for a swanky full-leather massage chair, a carpeted floor, or aromatic scents. 

Many nursing rooms I’ve been to barely function as such, with no power points for pumping, no clean surfaces to place the baby barang, no space to even manoeuvre a stroller without needing to do some gymnastics, no lock on the door – or better still, a semi-transparent door.

I mean honestly, what do people think mums use the room for?

Nursing rooms are for mums to feed our babies. Whether it’s by latching or pumping and bottle feeding.

So let me put this clearly: please make these rooms functional, with well-placed power sockets and surfaces to put our things, a wide-enough space to fit a stroller (because leaving our strollers outside inconveniences other mall patrons), a clean and comfortable chair, and an opaque door that locks.

3. Separate nursing rooms and diaper change areas

This is a tricky one. 

I’ve had the memorable experience of sitting in the nursing area with the curtain drawn, nursing my baby to the smell of another baby’s dirty diaper being changed from outside.

So I know it’s really… not great.

I recognise that the changing and nursing areas are usually co-located in the same place for two reasons: convenience (since parents often have to change their baby before or after feeding), and space constraints.

Perhaps the best way to approach this would be to do away with the dividers in nursing rooms, and simply place a lock on the main door. This would make it impossible for nursing mums and diaper-changing mums to co-use the space.

Meantime, placing foldable diaper change tables in every washroom is a good start. 

My best solution as a mum with a decade of experience changing diapers and feeding babies? Convert a cubicle into a diaper change station within every toilet – yes, including the gents.

It’s a win-win for everyone. Babies can get their diapers changed in the toilets, by either the mum or dad.

If this becomes a norm, mums and dads who need to change their babies can head to the toilet knowing there certainly will be a diaper room waiting for them, while nursing mums can nurse their babies in peace.

4. Water dispensers outside nursing rooms

This is a great bugbear of mine: mall patrons and staff waltzing into the nursing rooms to fill their bottles, while I wait for them to be done with a crying, hungry baby in tow.

I get it, it doesn’t take more than a minute to fill a bottle. But to a tired, stressed-out mum having to carry a hangry baby? That minute can feel like an eternity.

I’ve shooed people who tried to dash in to fill their bottles before I shut the door to nurse my baby. I’ve also patiently waited for people to be done with filling their bottles before I go in.

But to be honest, I think that all this can be circumvented by placing a water dispenser or water cooler outside the nursing room too. Why not make the shopping experience more pleasant for everyone?

Some malls already do this, and I’m grateful for their foresight.

5. Multiple nursing rooms in every public building

I’ve saved the best for the last. Remember my posh hotel story at the start of this piece?

It’s 2024, and many high-end hotels don’t even have nursing rooms. True story: I recently went for high tea at a glitzy hotel, with my then-infant with me. When I asked about where I could nurse her, I was told that there was nowhere to do so. In a luxurious hotel with hundreds of rooms, how is this acceptable?

Many malls only have one or two nursing rooms in the entire building, requiring mums to queue for the room or hunt another one down. Let’s not forget that babies need time to eat, so the other mum would have to wait for a while with a hungry baby in tow.

And a large number of malls, public buildings, and venues still completely lack nursing rooms.

Maybe it’s time to accord nursing rooms the same status as toilets when planning for a building – much like how toilets on every floor are a necessity.

How can we claim to be family-friendly when we still have to pray that the venue we’re headed to for the day has a nursing room to feed the baby?

Singapore, it’s time to wake up and do something about this. For all the talk about being family-friendly, let’s get the fundamentals right and ensure we have sufficient clean and functional nursing rooms in public spaces.

Final thoughts

Big incentives in the form of parental leave, tax rebates, childcare subsidies, and cash gifts are extremely nice, but it’s also time to look at the little things that make Singapore a more livable and welcoming space for families in day-to-day living.

Nursing rooms, for a start.

Kelly Ang (@kelthebelle) is a freelance writer and a mum of five, who spends an equal amount of time each day writing, driving her kids around, nagging at them (sadly) and planning her next family adventure. She’s still learning new things about being the mum her kids need, 11 years into this motherhood gig.