Breastfeeding is normal. Sexualising it isn’t.

Not ready to share your pregnancy news? Here are some clever tips to keep your exciting secret under wraps until you’re ready to tell the world.

But there’s one lesson we all need to take away from this. Especially if you’re a mother.

The one thing we must do when we see a mother being told to stop breastfeeding or pumping? Say something.

Dr Elise Turner had been breastfeeding in the Virgin Airport lounge when she was asked to leave. Image: Instagram/dreliseturner

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This is 2025

Gold Coast doctor Elise Turner was sitting in the Melbourne Airport Virgin business lounge, pumping under her shirt.

She was doing nothing wrong. Yet she was made to feel like a villain. 

“So this is pretty unbelievable, and I am beyond furious right now,” she said in a story post on Instagram. 

“I have been told that I can’t sit here in the Virgin lounge, as a paying business class ticket holder, to express breast milk that sits under my shirt like this, because this is a private business lounge and ‘we don’t do that here.’” 

The employee even dared to ask her to express herself in the bathroom instead. Let’s not even mention how unsanitary that request is.

“That is just disgusting. This is 2025,” she said.  

When I came across Elise’s story, I felt outrage. I’m sure I’m not alone.

I’ve been a breastfeeding mother. I know the discomfort that comes with not expressing milk.

The fact that she was about to board a flight and her options were either to pump in the bathroom and compromise the milk, or board with engorged breasts, is horrific.

Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, a mother’s right to breastfeed is protected. Both on a federal and state level. 

Which is exactly the reminder Elise gave to the Virgin employee.  

“Her reply was that I am making her and other people uncomfortable, and then she put her hand on my arm and asked me to leave,” Elise explained. 

The airline has since responded, offering an apology: “We are sorry for the way this situation was handled. It fell short of the high standards of care and customer service our team strives to deliver. We have reached out to our guest today to apologise directly.”

During my own breastfeeding journey, I didn’t pump or feed in public. Not even once. Not even with a cover.

Not because I didn’t want to, but because I hate confrontation.

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RELATED: ‘Don’t want to see that while I eat’: Breastfeeding mum shamed

We shouldn’t feel shame for this

It was easier to just not draw attention to myself. I hate that I had to feel that way. 

Any time a mother takes out her breast pump, I consider her brave. Because to do it in the face of a society that is so harsh is to carry the weight of both love and injustice. Simply for doing what should be natural.

Which is why I urge you: speak up if you see a mother being shamed for nurturing her child.

It’s one of the many reasons women abandon their breastfeeding journey. Robbed of the goals they set with their infant.

Breast milk is liquid gold. 

And while mums should feel no shame in stopping, for whatever reason they want, it’s devastating to think one of those reasons could be an uneducated idiot in an airport lounge.

Laws may protect us. They do nothing about the shame. The guilt. The public embarrassment.  

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RELATED: Breastfeeding pressure made me feel like a failure

We need to back mums who are simply trying to offer their child a feed or make themself feel more comfortable. 

Not just the average person. Especially other mothers.

Getting mum-shamed stings. And when we see another mother facing it, we need to band together, speak up, and fight back.

Breastfeeding is normal. Sexualising it isn’t.

If you’re uncomfortable with a woman expressing milk, maybe it’s time you grow up.