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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Thrown out of Harrods for Breastfeeding

119 replies

twelveyeargap · 03/12/2009 01:46

My good friend was in the Laudree cafe in Harrods at the weekend, discreetly breastfeeding her 4 month old daughter. A maitress d' came over and told her she couldn't breastfeed in the cafe and that she had to breastfeed in one of the "designated areas", presumably the toilets. Unappealing for obvious reasons.

My friend was really upset and took all her Harrods purchases back before leaving the store.

How much longer do we have to wait before the law is changed and it's no longer legal to ask women not to breastfeed?

I'm appalled. Any thoughts?

OP posts:
gorge2003 · 05/12/2009 12:59

meant changing DS not DH lol

PrincessToadstool · 05/12/2009 13:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gorge2003 · 05/12/2009 13:07

tbh if someone asked me to leave anywhere whilst i was bf-ing i would quite frankly tell them to f-off! It is OUR RIGHT AS WOMEN to feed our babies!

im not bf-ing anymore but wish i was

Lauriefairyonthetreeeatscake · 05/12/2009 13:19

given what people have said further up the thread perhaps the right thing to say to someone when asked to leave:

"You are legally within your rights to request that I leave but you are not able legally in law to force me to leave. So I'm not going to and my position is protected by the sexual discrimination act".

I also think recording the conversation on your phone would be a good thing because if they then forced you to leave you should sue and create case law that will then forbid people to be able to ask you to leave.

onebatmother · 05/12/2009 21:47

be with you in a minute.. hold on..

missjackson · 05/12/2009 22:30

What you said, Laurie.
Although I'm also with you gorge.

When my DS (first) was about 4 weeks, I was bf-ing in a hotel lounge, and some horrible couple said I was disgusting and that I should go somewhere 'more private', ie the loos. I was very inexperienced and pretty fumbling, so they got an eyeful of boob. I was very polite and restrained and told them I was sorry I had offended them but I wasn't going to move, but that they were welcome to. I was terribly upset by it. Now I wish I called the manager, made a huge fuss, and told them to f* off.

SnowyBoff · 05/12/2009 22:30

The correct response if asked to stop feeding is to smile nicely and refuse politely.

Go for it, ladies. But don't flash more boob than you have to in the process.

gorge2003 · 06/12/2009 10:22

well seriously would they rather our babies were screaming because they were hungry or would they rather see a woman bf-ing and seeing a nice happy content baby?

when i was bf-ing the only time i got caught out in town i went into the debenhams cafe cos imo they r feeding friendly as they have facilities to heat up food and bottles, i just sat down drapped a muslin over us and noone even blinked an eye lid, they did when my ds decided to spill his drink everywhere though haha!

in my town we do have a shop thats baby clothes etc called papoose and they have a breastfeeding/bottle feeding corner where you can sit and pull curtains around you, they provide magazines etc, i would have much rather have gone here than mothercare changing room thats about the size of a cupboard and when everyone goes in they STARE!!

pooexplosions · 07/12/2009 15:02

Go for it, ladies. But don't flash more boob than you have to in the process

sherby · 07/12/2009 15:16

this is the latest copy of nuts magazine

everytime I go into tesco/newsagents/chip shop this is what I and every other member of the public has to look at. NOBODY bats an eyelid

a woman discretly feeding her baby though? disgusting apparently

I could quite happily break something I really could

StealthPolarBear · 07/12/2009 15:51

good post pooexplosions
the world won't end if someone catches sight of my nipple

reservejudgement · 07/12/2009 18:35

Well said, pooexplosions!

SnowyBoff · 07/12/2009 21:35

I said it cos my SIL practically took her entire top off every time she fed my nephews and it freaked even the most hardened bf people out. There's such a thing as bf decorum, donchaknow.

SnowyBoff · 07/12/2009 21:39

I should also point out that I regard hooter hiders as sent by Satan as a form of bf burqa, so I am arguing for a middle road here.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 07/12/2009 21:48

I don't agree that we shouls hide in a corner when bf'ing but this summer we were out at a family fun park and there was a lady BF'ing her little one who had lifted her her breast out of the vneck of her tshirt and she was walking round feeding her fidgety toddler who was off and on her boob but just as much off as on and it really didn't feel like she was bf'ing her toddler as much as wandering round with her boob hanging out. I didn't find it uncomforatble but DH did as did a number of people (yes I know their problem) and this seems to reinforce the stereo type about breadtfeeding being about getting your boobs out when actually 90% of the time it isn't like that at all.

SnowyBoff · 07/12/2009 22:31

I think that's what I meant. Just as I wouldn't sunbathe topless on a church picnic, I wouldn't walk around with my baps hanging out at the park, out of decorum. Just like I try not to inflict muffin tops or whalebones on people.

snapple · 07/12/2009 23:52

Right I know the cafe and will try breastfeed there in the next few weeks and report back.

jkklpu · 07/12/2009 23:54

Write to the fuggin pharaoh (al Fayed) in no uncertain terms and see what his bouffant-haired PR adviser suggests that he send as a response. You could always allude to telling the papers if you[re not satisfied. CC to Westminster Council.

foxytocin · 08/12/2009 01:00

Greyskull, it is people in the UK who just are wierd about breasts and breastfeeding. Then again, I grew up in a country where in the 70's and even the 80's Maya women still went topless as per 3 or so thousand years of tradition.

Still, some women in Latin America still feel comfortable enough with breastfeeding a toddler to do this infront of the President of Venezuela.

ProcessYellowC · 08/12/2009 07:36

wow that is a cracking photo foxytocin, set me up for a morning of bf campaigning!

I hope your friend is ok, I agree with jkklpu's suggestion.

FourArms · 08/12/2009 07:59

The first time I took DS1 out by myself, I asked in a cafe if it was OK to bf him. Stupid mistake. They weren't sure. Had to find manager to ask. Meanwhile DS1 was screaming. Eventually I just fed him. I don't know what the answer would have been, but all I got was sweet nods from the grannies, and mild embarrassment from the builders at the next table. I felt fine. Never asked again. Anywhere.

V.cross your friend was made to feel uncomfortable, and hope it was just one shop assistant rather than the general attitude.

foxytocin · 08/12/2009 09:51

I like the fact that Hugo Chavez has a hand on her shoulder too. Can you imagine GB in the same position with a mumsnetter an unrelated woman bfing a toddler. And would she hoick her boob over the top of her top?

MsDoctor · 08/12/2009 10:11

Perhaps we could set up a table of women reading NUTS magazine in e the same cafe and see if they are asked to put it away? Or even better a group of men, get it photographed and then sell it to a paper.....now that would be proper discrimination.

SnowyBoff · 08/12/2009 11:22

Anyone up for a Nuts-sponsored feed-in in the House of Commons then?

The point about Mayan toplessness is surely that it's a bit warmer over there? I would not want to be out brandishing my norks in this weather, personally speaking.

(Bit on a completely different note, I have always wondered why willies shrink in the cold but nipples pop out more ....)

AliGrylls · 08/12/2009 11:27

I have a plan - everyone who is breastfeeding and lives within commutable distance to harrods should go there and we should all get our boobs out at the same time and feed.

Or will I be on my own?

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