Taiwan museum fined for stopping breastfeeding mum

A Chinese woman takes picture of her husband outside the National Palace Museum in Taipei March 22, 2009. AFP FILE PHOTO

TAIPEI – A top Taiwanese museum has been fined for preventing a woman from breastfeeding, the first such case since a law was enacted to protect the right to breastfeed in public, authorities said Tuesday.

The director and an employee of the National Palace Museum were each fined Tw$6,000 ($200) for violating the public breastfeeding law passed in 2010, said the Taipei city health department.

The incident came to light after the woman complained that a museum worker asked her to leave and told her it “looked very unsightly” when she breastfed her son outside an exhibition room last month.

The museum, internationally renowned for its vast collection of ancient Chinese artwork, said it would appeal against the fine and that its employee was only informing the woman that the museum had a special breastfeeding room.

Taiwan’s government has been promoting breastfeeding and vowed to ensure a better environment for mothers to nurse their babies after similar incidents in recent years.