Bottle feeding mum asked to leave breast feeding cafe

[Dawnybabe]

In my local paper, the Eastern Daily Press, of Norfolk, they ran a story about a mum who had, through a friend, been asked by a member of staff at a PCT run breast feeding cafe not to return because she had bottle fed her four month old son. Please tell me I'm not the only one absolutely incandescant with rage over this? Apparently she had a medical reason for bottle feeding as well. Aren't the staff being as bigoted as the general public who force the need for a breast feeding cafe in the first place? Surely the attitude should be that you are safe to feed there however you like without any prejudice? There is enough pressure and guilt forced on bottle feeding mums as it is without staff who should know better joining in the witch hunt.

The problem is that ante natal education is extremely poor in this country. In our town you have to pay for NHS antenatal classes. Although a couple of GPs have generously paided out of their own pockets for first time mums on their list.

Its no good telling women that breastfeeding is best for baby without telling them how to position the baby and how to avoid problems. Also there is a tendency to discharge women from a maternity unit 6 hours after delivery. Many maternity units are under staffed and resemble a saugage factory these days. Women are just set up to fail at breastfeeding by the system.

Countries like Norway do much better at helping mothers to breastfeed than the UK does. It would be interesting to know what they do differently from us.

i'm sorry this woman felt upset - no mum should be made to feel like that BUT... as a breastfeeding councillor, i can understand staff asking her not to come back. far too many times i have had mums of newborns on the ward looking at breastfed babys feeding constantly, and ff babys sleeping soundly in their cots. it makes it a lot harder to encourage them to continue breastfeeding.
it is very hard to support breastfeeding when formula feeding mums turn up and make it look so much 'easier' to bottle feed. i also imagine this 'cafe' is run on nhs money, with a valuable midwife there to support breastfeeding mums. the last thing a woman needs when she is at her wits end, trying hard to continue breastfeeding and looking for help, is to see a mum formula feeding.
sounds like they were rude to her, which they should not have been. but can definately understand why they asked her not to come back.

krazykoolkazza - breastfeeding drop-ins are not for people to
'see women BFing easily and them smugly telling you in a very patronising way "yes it is a struggle but you have to persevere and break through that pain barrier if you are truly committed to doing what's best for your baby".'
what a load of crap. if you get help and proper advice on breastfeeding you don't have to break through any pain barrier. breastfeeding shouldn't hurt, and it doesn't hurt when you have the baby positioned correctly.
there really isn't such a thing as 'can't breastfeed' 99.99% of women CAN breastfeed. they just don't get the help they need to do it, which is why things like breastfeeding cafe's are set up in the first place.