Mum with 3 day old baby told to stop breastfeeding in Costa Coffee

[grouphug]

I still am so angry at this. I had to post, although I probably has been posted already.

Taken from a newspaper.
A Mum was feeding her three-dayold son Callum under her jacket when she was approached by a waitress.
She was told customers had complained it made them "uncomfortable" and she was asked to leave.
The 20-year-old, who had been in an outside seating area with her back to the window, burst into tears.
She said: "It was humiliating. I'd just got over a fear of breastfeeding in public and now I've stopped. It's something a mother should never have to go through."
The coffee chain has apologised to Nicola for the incident in the shop by her home in Poole, Dorset.
A Government spokeswoman said it had broken a new sex discrimination law by throwing out a breastfeeding mum.

Pathetic. Mass email campaign?

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LU4 9QH

Wow
Which century are we in?

Well done to the Mum for feeling confident and well enough to a) go out with her 3day old babe and b) breastfeed him/her

Hope this hasn't put her off

bit frantic tonight but perhaps some clever person could draft a list of the key points an email should make.. ending with "I have been visiting my local branch on a daily basis but will certainly not be doing so until... "

gosh how sad.......... that said it must be an isolated case, i used to feed in costa quite often and never had a problem.

That's astounding. I bf in lots of coffee shops including cafe costas and have never had a problem. I hope the staff member was disiplined. What she did is harrassment. The correct response it to say to anyone who complains about bf that people are perfectly entitled to do it and that it is company policy to allow it so if they fell uncomfortable they might want to go elsewhere. I left a coffee shop before I wanted to today because a smelly person with bad BO came in and sat near me, while I was bf funnily enough, but I wouldn't have expected the staff to throw him out!

Idiots. The coffee shop and the customers.

It makes me so flipping mad.

If they felt uncomfortable they should have been made to leave. And if I ever had a cafe that is what would happen.

2008? More like 1908!

She has now given up breastfeeding because of this. I heard her on the radio and she was still so upset by it. They have no idea the damage they have caused.

www.thisisdorset.net/display.var.2209486.0.mum_thrown_out_of_cafe_for_breastfeeding.php

Wow, I'm so impressed at that woman for being out and about with a 3-day old baby. Fair play to her.

at 4 weeks I'd still struggle to BF in public. Not ready to brave it yet.

WHO are these people who are made uncomfortable by BFing? seriously? WTF is wrong with them?

A tiny little newborn baby is feeding - how do you not just go "awww"? You barely ever even see babies that little out in public. Imagine seeing one and wanting to stop it eating?

It's just totally incomprehensible.

Where do they think babies should eat? Or should new mothers not leave their homes?

Which discomfort should be prioritised?

The discomfort someone might feel at seeing someone conduct a perfectly normal and natural act that maybe they're not used to

OR

the discomfort of a hungry newborn baby being denied food?

Grrr. Oh well, must stop preaching to the choir I guess...

I saw this in our local paper. Bournemouth Echo. Some of the comments on there made me too. If I was b/feeding I would do it in there out of principal (never go in there anyway!).

if someone does what obm says i'll happily send off an email.
I'd do it but am restricted to typing about 4 words a minute atm.

oh what wonderful news VS! b or g?

Everyone email Costa Coffee now and just say

We will not be coming through your doors again until you make a grovelling apology to the new mum and her baby and give her free coffee for the rest of the year. You discriminated and you are not allowed to do that.

boy, alexander oliver born tuesday 10lb 3oz.

no, for the rest of her LIFE. and the baby should get it free coffee for his life too if he ever starts drinking it.

oh lovely lovely names! And Huge! I am very happy for you all. Gosh, that really has cheered me up.

I think Costa should make a BIG donation to a suitable charity as well as free coffee to the mum for life.
Totally and UTTERLEY outrageous. I am emailing them NOW to suggest the above. everyone else do the same !
Just as a reminder

[email protected]

Has anyone read the last couple of comments on the Bournmouth Echo blog. They suggest that the story isn't necessarily true. Obviously, we don't know, but when I showed my DH the story, his first reaction was 'What a load of rubbish'.

Not doing that, NAB -- my local Costa is the one cafe locally where I can breastfeed in comfort, which I do regularly. I'm not bycotting it because the staff at a different franchise are gits (on the other thread about this, it was agreed by those who know the Costa in question that its staff are just generally nasty, small-minded and immature). The staff in mine are lovely, go out of their way to be helpful to mothers with small babies and don't object to my buying one cup of tea and then sitting there breastfeeding DD for two hours. And if I boycotted it then I'd wind up sitting at home to breastfeed, which I think would be counterproductive.

Fair enough.

Sainsbury's once told me they didn't allow BFing in their cafes....

have emailed
if it was untrue, then why the comment from Costa?

PortandLemon, you don't have to stay away - you just have to let them know that they are risking your custom. You could write something about the necessity for a company policy on this issue blah blah as it seems there are vast differences between one branch and another.

Here is the email I'm about to send, already a bit panicked about all the other shite I've got to do tonight but comments please in the next 15 mins, then I'm sending it and getting on with all the crap!
Feel free to copy the basics or word for word..

"I am writing to express my anger at the fact that the mother of a 3 day-old baby was told to stop breast-feeding in your Poole branch.

You are probably aware that breast-feeding is, according to the World Health Organization and the government, the best way for a baby to be fed. In this instance, the mother concerned was so embarrassed by her public humiliation that she has fel unable to continue breast-feeding her baby.

If some of your customers are uncomfortable with a baby being fed, then that is unfortunate. But were they to have expressed a similarly obnoxious complaint about another issue - made a racist comment, for example - you would, I am certain, have told them to keep their prejudices to themselves.

This is precisely the position that your staff should have taken in this instance, and I am astonished that they had not already received direction on Costa's company policy on breastfeeding.

Until today I have been a daily customer of yours, in E17 [google your nearest branch], but I will be having coffee elsewhere until Costa acknowledges its error and makes some reparation. I would suggest that long-term sponsorship of a charity which supports breast-feeding would be an appropriate response.

Yours sincerely

Onebat"

I'll assume that everyone is flabbergasted that a bat can type that well and send it, then.

Goodness I am horrified at some of the comments in snorris's link. It just goes to show how out of touch, we as mumsnetteres are with the 'sad' views that many menmbers of the public have.
"FLOP it out and loss of dignity "