to think this use of baby changing facility was unreasonable?

[SugarBatty]

On saturday I went shopping to m&s. We went to the cafe and my ds pooed so I went to change him. The door to the baby changing was locked. After 5 mins another lady joined the queue. Another 5 mins passed ds was starting to cry. I began to wonder if the room was empty or the lock was broken so I tried the handle it was locked. The lady behind said she had used it before and there were 2 beds in there. After a few more mins she said she would come back later as her dc was only wet. I decided to knock on the door.

A girl opened the door and peaked round, I asked could I come in and change my baby. She let me in and locked the door and said "my friend is breastfeeding" round the corner were the changing beds and a girl sat feeding her baby.

Anyway I changed ds and left and the girl again locked the door after me. There was now two others girls queuing to change their babies!

I understand some people want privacy to feed their baby but blocking a whole baby changing room seemed a bit unreasonable. I also thought the chair was placed very near to the changing bed and can't have been pleasant for feeding your baby anyway! They were both very pleasant to me, the friend offered to stand and watch ds whilst I washed my hands.

have only read first and last pages but someone said why do you need a changing table, change baby on knee. There are perennial threads on here (including one last week) about someone chnaging their baby on the seat of a train / on the floor etc and they usually get told they WBU and should have found the changing facilities. It seems the baby being fed was not very young so not a mother new to feeding. If the room has more than one function or more than one changing station it should not be locked. If you are using one cubicle in a public loo, you don't lock the outer door so none of the others can be used.

rhubarb [cuppa] I agree

MamaMausaura it is far from the same thing. A better analogy would be where someone locked the main entrance to the toilets so that no one could get in while they had a nice leisurely pee in one of many empty cubicles. That's more like what the woman in question was doing. Preventing anyone else from using the facilities so she could have a feeding chair or 2 and a couple of changing stations all to herself. I accept that may not have been her intention, but that was the end result.

I did BF not sure of the relevance of that, at the early trips out my nearest place was JL sloane Sq, would have caused a riot if I tried to lock the door to facilities to that huge room and expected people to stay out! How ridiculous

129 posts and you've got where on this exciting issue?

So if you are using a public loo, are you now going to leave it unlocked as its a public facility? Or are you going to lock it and use it, and people can wait their turn? It is same thing.

No it's not!! If it is a cubicle ofcourse you are meant to lock the door - because only one person is meant to use the cubicle at one time. People go to toilet in private, however you are meant to change a nappy or feed in a communal fashion in a communal changing and feeding room. A door lock on it doesn't mean that people can choose to use it for themselves like their own private cubicle.
And yes I do BF, and I still BF my 21 month old.

I really don't understand why she locked the door if they were going to let in people anyway.
!

2 change tables for families with twins, more than one child?. OP what m&s was this? The one in west quay has 2 feeding and changing rooms, each has a lock, which I use.

I am sorely tempted to telephone the m&s and ensuite about their provisions for bfeeding and changing babies.

2 sugars please Mama

Heyyy - thR John Lewis in west quay is huge and open plan and no locks. It's also ridicoulsy loud. The change and feeding facilities at m&s are 2 small rooms with chair and change station. Actually in ikea last week I used the feeding change room and I locked the door. Also stopped my asd 4 year old escaping as I fed his baby sister

Changing and feeding rooms come in different sizes too. I would lock the door of such a room if it was not much larger than a private toilet cubicle, with only one changing station and a chair in it and no room for another buggy in there too, so I would assume it was designed for using by one person at a time. But most of them are large, having 2 or 3 changing tables and a few chairs - and these are communal, so even if there was a lock on the door (tbh I've never noticed locks on these types of rooms) it would not be the done thing to lock it.

Ooh well I just made a banana and lime cake yesterday so I'll share that with you. How big do you want your slice?

Large please..

Shall we sit in the changing room, lock the door and stuff our faces?

Ooo yes

She might have been embarassed and anxious about feeding in public, but she was still being selfish to lock the door and prevent anyone else using it for an extended period of time.

Debenhams have a combined feeding / changing room too. I went in today, nice lady staff member told me to lock the door if I wanted too feed in private, so I did just while I got the boob out and got dc latched, then I unlocked it in case anybody else needed to feed their baby too.
I was in an arcade type setting, so there were toilets with changing facilities in several shops, but this was the only lockable room for feeding in.
So, depending on if there were other changing facilities in the area I think it was reasonable use of the room, yes. If there were no other facilities then it was probably a bit unreasonable to lock the door.

yanbu