to think something is wrong with the story about mum being made to stand and breastfeed on the train?

[PAlm5]

Longest title ever? Sorry!

Breastfeeding mum forced to stand on rush hour train www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-45421266

Anyone think this is a little... fishy? I'm 8 months pregnant and am ALWAYS offered a seat. I've also never not been offered a seat when I've had a tiny baby in a sling with me (though that hasn't been for a little while now).

I really, REALLY don't think that on a full carriage that nobody bothered to offer a breast feeding mum a seat?

Maybe I'm naive or people in the Midlands, on extremely jam packed trains are just nicer than elsewhere, but I just can't get my head round this.

Has anyone ever experienced this before?

She’s a mum blogger so it was probably just a bit of PR for her website

Or you just ask for one! I get quite bad SPD sometimes, when I say quite bad I mean I can feel fine in the morning and by the afternoon I am in agony and have to waddle to the station. It terrified me getting on the train one day as people do shove a bit. I just asked a conductor for a hand who made sure I could get on. I felt like such a drama queen but nobody minded. I just asked for help and I got it when I needed it. Every other time it's not been so bad and I've been offered a seat.

Blimey! It did happen. And she had a buggy!

Ah, no, the teenage boy offered her a seat on the tube earlier and she declined. This was a (longer I’m guessing?) commuter train home.

Like the lady who had her baby ripped from her in prime mark

@53rdWay ahh okay. Got it now... was confused for a second.

In this case, I don't even know that I would have offered her a seat. You can't sit with a pram on some commuter trains. Most women I see choose to stand with them. I would've thought she maybe had a load of stuff in the pram and didn't want it nicked or to leave it unattended. She'd chosen to take her baby out of the pram and was happy to stand.

This has confirmed for me that actually she's just being a bit of an entitled bellend.

“She told MailOnline: 'I'd actually spent the afternoon in London after the event and had used the tube, everyone until this point had been really friendly and helpful on the underground, helping with my buggy up stairs and offering their seats.

'I actually declined one teenage boy's offer of his seat as Charlie was happy in his buggy and I didn't feel I needed it more than he did at the time.'

But to her dismay, when she boarded her commuter train back to Wickford and the youngster began crying out for a feed, there was no offers of somewhere to sit.“

It is pretty tricky to breastfeed a baby without removing it from its buggy. I don’t think that’s really being that entitled.

Sounds like attention seeking bullshit trying to get views for her mummy blog

I think she's entitled because she thinks everyone should have jumped up to give her a seat when actually she should've just asked. I see a woman with a pram I presume she's standing with it because she wants to. I see a woman taking selfies of herself breastfeeding her baby I presume she's alright!

She should’ve just asked, yes, but I think not asking is being a bit daft rather than being a terrible person who had probably invented the whole thing for attention.

I can believe it.
When hesvily pregnant I was refused a seat by a bloke who said he was saving it for his mate. I've been st on the floor heavily prevent one time and breastfeeding another time and unable to get up quick enough when a seat became available only for someone else two swoop in and nab it. The latter by a couple with a baby in a pram so should have known better.

I've also been refused use of the wheelchair area for my double pushchair on a train which was in the main carriage where I could sit next to it and was told to use the luggage area for my push chair with sleeping toddler in. so I went and sat on the floor of the luggage area and fed my baby there, even though no one was needing the wheelchair spot or even the seats nearby. So i breastfed my child on the floor because i wasn't going to leave my sleeping toddler in the luggage van alone.
That was cross country trains. Bastards.

I think she's fabricated it. Did she walk up and down this packed aisle with her pram? I don't think so. It's not possible. I think she made herself look perfectly happy to stand and then moaned when nobody offered her a seat.

Hey I wasn't there. I don't believe her story however.

Why don’t you believe her story? It doesn’t sound remotely plausible to me that nobody offered without her asking.

remotely IMplausible even!

Can't speak for breastfeeding but those saying they've never not been offered a seat when pregnant. Lucky you! I have had to stand in trams/buses on many occasions when heavily pregnant.

In fact on the tram home, on my last day of maternity leave at 37 weeks I had to stand for the entire journey while I young couple sat in the priority seats and literally stared at my bump the whole time. It was very weird.

I know I could have asked for a seat but I'm also of the opinion that I shouldn't have to ask really. I was okay and luckily still quite mobile, otherwise I would have done, but found the staring to be rather rude!

@53rdWay Gut feeling. Even from the face she is pulling. 'Feel sorry for me'

I think it's just a bit of egotistical self promotion.

Last day before maternity leave that should say

Do you think you’re perhaps reading a bit much into her facial expression, PAlm5? It does seem a bit OTT to lambast someone for awful behaviour when the only evidence you’ve got of that awful behaviour is a ’gut feeling’.

Mummy blogger says it all. So glad she was able to take a selfie though to prove she was on the train.

Do these women not realise the damage they do to genuine people?

@53rdWay nope. Not at all.

If I saw a woman taking selfies of herself, standing with a pram that likely had all her stuff in, who hadn't actually taken the initiative to ask for a seat, breastfeeding (if I saw someone standing up breastfeeding taking selfies I would probably presume she was ok or comfortable), I wouldn't necessarily feel like I needed to give her my seat!

I think she has made this story out ok be FAR worse than it is when actually she should've just asked for a blinkin' seat.

I think it's ridiculous to claim you bfed your baby and had hardly anything to hold on to on a packed commuter train. Why would you even publish that? Irresponsible and dangerous. Any mother I know would have at least sat down on the floor if she absolutely had to breastfeed, or would have asked someone to move as instinctually you wouldn't put your baby at risk like that.

Yep. She's a muppet!

I always find these stories are a bit ridiculous.

However.... When I was pregnant I was never once offered a seat on a train or bus in London, I would have to ask people to move if I needed to sit down. One guy actually pushed me out of the way to get to a seat first once! I also tripped up in the middle of a busy very street when 8 months pregnant and not a single person stopped to ask me if I was OK or to help me up. Knobs

@PAlm5 - this mentions her saying that a teenage boy had offered her a seat: www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6133779/Mother-forced-stand-breastfeeding-train.html

For those who don’t want to click, the text says “I actually declined one teenage boy's offer of his seat as Charlie was happy in his buggy and I didn't feel I needed it more than he did at the time.”

However, from rereading it’s unclear if that was on the train in question or on the tube. Either way, I knew I’d seen it!

Am normally cynical about these stories too- as found everyone extremely accommodating when I was pg and when I was bf. But I know the person who offered the seat that was nipped into by the earphone wearing commuter. So this one is def true!