Breastfeeding mum was forced to feed standing up on rush hour train

Shameful. A lot has been said and written about many commuters' reluctance to give up their seat for a pregnant women, but what about a mum struggling to breastfeed on a moving train? UK mum Kate Hitchens, 32, was travelling home to Wickford from London during rush hour earlier this week, and during the journey, had to breastfeed her six-month-old son, Charlie. In an angry Instgram post, Hitchens explains how other commuters saw her nursing, but no-one offered her a seat until the very end of her 35-minute journey. The blogger, who is also mum to three-year-old Oliver, urged people to "be kinder" if they saw others struggling. Hitchens said she could have asked for a seat, but "shouldn't have to". And we could not agree more. "What has the world come to that a mother has to stand up on a moving train breastfeeding a wriggling and writhing six-month-old, 20lb baby," she writes. "The point here isn't just that I found it difficult because I was nursing, but that not one person offered a mother carrying a small child a seat for three stops. I shouldn't have to ask." The mum-of-two and blogger, who writes about baby-led weaning on her blog, Hitchen's Kitchen, said the journey on the packed commuter train left her feeling "embarrassed and flustered". Talking to the BBC, Hitchens explains: "I had planned to be home for dinner time but the train I wanted to get was cancelled. I don't make a big deal of breastfeeding and try to be discreet but everyone could see what I was doing," she explains. "Physically, I felt quite uncomfortable as I didn't have much to hold on to and Charlie was jiggling around as the train moved so it hurt. And when a lovely lady did get up to offer me her seat, another sat in it, put her headphones in and closed her eyes." The 32-year old is keen to stress that this isn't about breast v bottle-feeding. "It's about being kind and showing common courtesy. If I saw someone struggling, whether it was with a baby, some heavy bags or a pile of books, I would give them my seat."