Nadiya Hussain reveals she breastfed her newborn baby during university exam
GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF winner Nadiya Hussain has revealed that one of the most significant moments of her life was doing her first exam for her degree, only days after giving birth to her daughter.
Nadiya Hussain breastfed her baby during University Exam
The 31-year-old baker revealed that she was in fact breastfeeding baby Maryam as she completed the first paper for her Open University degree in Childhood and Youth Studies around five years ago.
Speaking on a special edition of Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 today, she was asked what was the most significant moment of her life.
“I’ve got loads,” she explained, before going on to say: “But I’m going to pick one that sticks out to me. It was the first day I took my exam for my university degree, 10 days after having my daughter and I was breastfeeding her in the back because, why not?”
She was commended for her multi-tasking abilities by presenters Jane Garvey and Jenni Murray.
Nadiya was on the episode - Woman’s Hour at 70 - as part of the programme’s celebration of seven decades on the airwaves and had even baked a cake for the occasion.
Today’s show was focusing on how the lives and attitudes of women has changed since Woman’s Hour first started back in 1946.
A special poll commissioned to celebrate the anniversary of Woman’s Hour found that 86 per cent of women surveyed would rather be a woman than a man, compared to 56 per cent in 1947.
While women aged between 18 and 34 were less likely to feel that they were held back at work as a result of being a woman, according to the results.
Nadiya Hussain has spoken candidly about being a woman in 2016
Nadiya was on Woman's Hour at 70 this morning
It was the first day I took my exam for my university degree, 10 days after having my daughter and I was breastfeeding her in the back because, why not?
Along with discussing her proudest moment, Nadiya talked about what made her glad to be a woman in 2016.
“I think having the opportunity to make the choice. I know that I’ve had the choice to stay at home and that was a choice that I made and I was there for nearly a decade,” said the mother-of-three.
The Bake Off champion is mother to daughter Maryam and sons Musa and Dawad with her husband Abdal.
Nadiya and her husband Abdal have 3 children together
Nadiya went on to say: “[I] raised my children - who are still very little. Then to have the choice to go out to work and do what I love.”
However, she did feel that women still “burden” themselves and feel guilty about going out into the working world and leaving their children at home.
“I love being out to work, doing what I love. But I feel like as a woman, as a mum - although I have a husband at home, who does the laundry, who looks after the children and enjoys it while doing a full-time job, I burden myself with it,” she said.
Nadiya with the Queen and the birthday cake she made
Nadiya with Bake Off judge Mary Berry
Woman's Hour presenters Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey
She confessed that she needed to “let go” and go out to work without “yearning” to get back home.
Her rise to fame since winning The Great British Bake Off last year has been meteoric, leading to her not only do be a guest panellist on Loose Women, getting her own two-part documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya, but also serving as a judge on the junior edition of the BBC series.
Over the last 12 months she also baked a birthday cake for the Queen and published a children’s book and a cook book.
Woman’s Hour airs weekdays on BBC Radio 4 at 10 and Saturdays at 4pm.