Had to leave Costa as breastfeeding was taking too long

[CalmFawn]

Visited Costa last week with my 10 day old baby. Went to meet my best friend and it was my first outing without my husband ( so a bit nervous!)

Sat down and we both ordered a coffee and a cake. Had a good chat and she held baby etc. about 40 mins into seating, I started to breastfeed baby. Coffee was nearly gone but cakes hadn’t been eaten yet. A member of staff came over and demanded I stop feeding my baby as it was ‘too time consuming’ and we’ve been sat here for too long and it was a busy period so we need to leave. We pointed out there were over 10 empty tables and we still had cake but she ignored us and held the door open for us to leave. I was so upset and embarrassed I just stopped feeding baby and rushed out.

whilst reflecting over the weekend I wish I had had said something to her but worried I’ve missed some time frame that Costa allow and overran. Was she right to ask us to leave? Or was she in the wrong?

Good luck with the breastfeeding, I hope the baby settles into it!
Let us know the update. It's really such an outrageous situation, and so unreasonable.
Plus: I could never imagine leaving a cake....

Why are so many commenters sceptical about whether this actually happened?
Costa is a reputable company that covers intense staff training procedures.
Asking a lady feeding her baby to leave is completely unacceptable and against the law, there is no grey area.

Most of us have branches close by.

I doubt any staff felt it was okay, it is gross misconduct, if it happened.

Well if they're going to feed their pet snakes there I wouldn't be at all surprised if they get thrown out!

Although, to be fair, some cobras are better behaved than those awful yappy dogs some people bring in.

Why are so many skeptical?

Three words

This Is Mumsnet

In Scotland this is illegal.

but surely if there are still empty tables and chairs you don't zoom over to the breastfeeding woman and chuck her out.

I didn't say you need to experience something yourself to find someone else's experience unlikely. You appeared to think that the fact that something was not in accordance with people's personal experience would be a valid reason for doubting it happened. Which would be ridiculous.

What is even more ridiculous is the number of people on here who seem to be unaware of MN's rules on troll hunting.

It's illegal anywhere in the UK.
Also, particularly strange in an empty café after only 40 mins.

Yes, that's the weird bit - plus hold the door open for them to leave!

lucky you - i was in a café once when a breastfeeding woman was asked to leave. 3 separate people, not connected with her, and I told the member of staff to stop or face the consequences of breaking the law.

Personally? even nearly 30 years ago, i bf all over UK and Europe and only encountered lovely friendly people.

I believe some individual may have had the audacity to do this, law or no law.

I hope https://www.instagram.com/costacoffee/
responds properly, OP. That should haven't happened to you.

On baby 3

I'm appalled at this. The employee was using a spurious excuse to get you out of Costa because you were breastfeeding, not because you had been sat there for 40 minutes!
I sit in Nero for 2 hours with friends on one drink - it's usually pretty busy. Have also had meetings and meet-ups in Costa which have def gone on for an hour or so with just one drink.
I haven't bf'd for 22 years, but even when I did I never got thrown out of any establishments and I'm not sure the law was in place then. I bf'd in a lot of coffee shops - chains and not. Although I have to say I didn't' bf in public until about 5 weeks post-partum as I just wasn't confidient enough.

I look forward to seeing Costa's response with some two-bit excuse.

Was it closing time? Do we know this?

Yes, you did

FFS, are people on here so narrow-minded that they only believe something if they have experienced it themselves?

@SawItOnTikTokI don’t think that can be described as ‘entitled’. I read it as the PP musing on the difference between using a DFS sofa vs a chair that someone is selling privately. It is mildly interesting from a legal perspective. The mention of a court case is clearly a joke, as you acknowledged yourself.

You need a cake refund for being told to leave and door held open for you to go quickly
You also need to tell us which branch to out them and nearby MNs can go down breastfeeding in support!

I think they must have told all their staff something at Costa, it's the same in ours where they ask people to leave if they've been there a while - for whatever reason. It's shocking they did that while you still had food in front of you though. It would have been better to politely ask if you could finish up within x time.

I'm horrified for you OP. I've spent many an hour in Costa on mat leave and beyond because they were the only place with decent dairy free cake offerings when I was feeding my CMPA baby. I had a very inefficient feeder and would sit in Costa for ages until I was done. I've also sat for ages with a book and nothing been said. Anyone working in Costa has always been fab when I've had baby with me, offering to bring my food over, opening doors etc. I think the person you dealt with has absolutely gone rogue! Don't let it put you off going back.

I've breastfed two of them. Exclusively for 6 months and then carrying on till 14 months. Eating over the baby's head was a rite of passage. One OP has confirmed she is fully on board with and that the neither of them (including the friend was not breastfeeding) touching their cake for 40 minutes was because of chatting not feeding.

All of which is beside the point that what I said was "ridiculous" was anyone being asked to leave a cafe when they hadn't finished what they had bought there. The not eating for 40 minutes is less noteworthy than the actions of the staff member. But not entirely unnoteworthy!

Because it sounds like the sort of thing someone would write to get people frothing at the mouth.

I mean, who leaves CAKE?? 😂

Yes, though I was saddened that a law was necessary to begin with.

I don't think what happened would occur in most Costa branches, OP let us know the response to your complaint.

If they're asking everyone and applying a blanket rule to move all customers on after X time, that's fine albeit stupid when the place is half empty. It wouldn't be illegal to include a breastfeeding woman in that. But they shouldn't mention breastfeeding at all, because it ought to be irrelevant.