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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

BF protection law and pumping question...

27 replies

entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 16:07

So I know that a conference venue or a hotel do not have the right to deny me service because I am breast feeding but what about pumping in order to BF?

The context is that I was away at a two day conference without the baby who was noshing on the freezer stash, but obvs I had to keep expressing and chucking in order to keep the supply up. So do the venues have the right to ask me not to pump?

OP posts:
Graciescotland · 09/12/2011 16:10

No answer here but interesting question. Hopefully someone will be along with an answer.

It might be covered as a place of employment i.e. your employer has to find you somewhere to express and to store the milk to enable you to breastfeed rather than the venue itself.

ginmakesitallok · 09/12/2011 16:15

I don't think it is acceptable to pump in public, but they should have helped you find somewhere private?

worldgonecrazy · 09/12/2011 16:15

Where were you pumping? Were you somewhere private? I always found non-work environments really helpful with finding me somewhere to express if I needed to.

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 16:30

Sorry I should have said that I was in my own room in the hotel, and in a room that they had 'made available' (was actually the luggage room) at the conference venue. In both cases people were worried about noise rather than the terrifying possibility of glimpsing nipple...

I am not in a state about it and I totally accept that the pump makes a noise and also that sometimes you have to pump at somewhat antisocial hours. I was just wondering what the legal position is and whether its a bit of a loop hole...

OP posts:
Graciescotland · 09/12/2011 16:34

How loud is your pump? I've never heard it being raised as an issue before.

organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 16:38

There is nothing in law about this, unfortunately, however I've never been anywhere that isn't anything other than really supportive and helpful.

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 16:45

Its just a standard tomeetippee pump. Its not wildly loud but I could believe it would be heard through a crappy hotel wall....

I had it muffled under a pillow as well....

OP posts:
Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 16:46

ahh well I guess I will have to learn to hand express if I go away again...or just not get unlucky...

OP posts:
organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 17:04

Erm - how I say this - I've heard far more "personal" things through crappy hotel walls!

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 17:06

well me too although it occurred to me that maybe thats what they thought it was? I mean it does sound a little suggestive...or maybe I need to get out more...

OP posts:
hazchem · 09/12/2011 17:07

I have to say I'm surprised it was loud enough to be heard.

Also what kinda of a douche bag calls the hotel management and says " excuse me the woman next door is using a breast pump and it is disturbing me"

Honestly some people are so rude. I assume you weren't playing load dance music at the same time.
hope the rest of the conference went well.

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 17:09

Well the walls were supper thin...I heard next door tele go on in the morning...

Also as OCC maybe hinting they prob didnt know what it was...

OP posts:
organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 17:19

Gods, I SO want to write something that is making me giggle in a school girl way but daren't..!!!

HAS someone actually complained then???

Shock
TruthSweet · 09/12/2011 17:19

Can I just check I have this right? You were asked to stop pumping in your OWN hotel room not in a communal area of the hotel???

What reason did they give (aside from the noise aspect but how loud is a TT pump - loud enough that you have to raise your voice to have a conversation over it?) to you stopping expressing in your own room?

organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 17:21

But seriously, people do "all sorts of things" in hotel rooms. I once stayed in a really high-class establishment which had a sign saying "please use the toilet if you need to vomit, not the litter bin". It also had plastic sheets on the bed.

Hey, I was broke and needed a place to stay while at a training course!!

organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 17:22

Oh shit, that sounds like using a BP is doing "all sorts of things" which it clearly is NOT LOL.

I'll just get me coat.

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 17:22

erm yes....that is what happened....I got a phone call from reception asking me to keep the noise down. It was after 11 pm.

The conference venue just moved me somewhere else, further from the neighbouring room.

maybe my pump is broken....it does start squeaking sometimes although I do my best not to let it Blush.

OP posts:
TruthSweet · 09/12/2011 17:23

OCC - I believe you just compared pumping to vomiting in litter bins. Tsk tsk

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 17:25

OCC that sounds like a lovely place! You must tell us what it was called so we can all avoid it.

OP posts:
organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 17:44

PMSL. Behave yourself truthsweet, you big meanie. Grin

entropy I know. It was many, many years ago! Before Trip Advisor LOL.

OK, but in all seriousness, I am shocked by this but also suspect that in the hotel room they didn't know what it was.

MotherPanda · 09/12/2011 17:48

That's awful! The tt pump is really noisy though, I have a spectra 3 pump now which is very heavy but has a nice quiet hypnotic noise to it. I would write a snotty letter to say how upset you were etc, they need educating!

TruthSweet · 09/12/2011 17:53

Thread derail

MotherPanda - what's the Spectra 3 like? I haven't heard anything about but I have seen it on ebay. I'm curious as it was a lower price point than a Medela/Ameda when I looked at it (circa 2yrs ago) and the way things are at the moment every penny counts for some mums so if there is a lower cost but still effective pump out there it's useful to know.

MotherPanda · 09/12/2011 18:20

Oh god I love my spectra! It's £50 for a brand new one on amazon. Go on amazon and read their reviews - they are very accurate. I get loads more milk out than with my tt, which packed in after 2 weeks with milk up the air pipe, my only warning is to dial it up very slowly as it gets mighty powerful after being pathetically weak.

Original poster
entropyglitter · 09/12/2011 18:54

regarding snotty letters...I dont think I can/should write a letter given that the consensus is that I dont have the right to pump....

OP posts:
organiccarrotcake · 09/12/2011 19:11

Oh you have the right, of course you do. You have the right to drink coffee, to read a book and to play monopoly in a hotel room. You don't have these rights in law but that wouldn't mean they could stop you doing it.

Did they know what you were doing? There's maybe a difference between asking you to stop a random noise and knowing what and why you were doing and still trying to stop you. Clearly it's reasonable to ask you to stop a noise that's disturbing someone after 11pm, but given what you were doing and why I think it would be poor customer service to insist you stop if they knew what and why. You might not have a right in law but poor customer service is a totally separate thing.

Does that make sense?

On the other hand, vomiting in the litter bin is probably pushing it Grin.

PS are you normally a "girl"? :)

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