Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

News

Bottle feeding mum asked to leave breast feeding cafe

378 replies

Dawnybabe · 28/06/2007 15:59

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.

OP posts:
Aloha · 28/06/2007 16:17

Oh, and she wasn't asked to leave, just that this wasn't a service for her. Just as my ds's physiotherapy babygym wasn't for everyone.

Hulababy · 28/06/2007 16:18

But from the info it sounds like they'd all done a baby massage class together and then all popped into the breast feeding cafe for a drink. Doesn't sound like it is somewhere you go specifically just for advice and guidance, but a drop in, have a drinka nd chat place. Maybe this woman was with a group of women, rest of whom breast feed? So what should she do, sit outside the door on her own and drink outside?

tiredemma · 28/06/2007 16:18

No excuse at all for it. If it were vice versa, there would be merry hell.

Aloha · 28/06/2007 16:18

I don't know. But I just suspect we don't know all the facts.

morocco · 28/06/2007 16:19

i remember going to a few advice dropins with ds1 who continually slept and feeling bad cos he never woke up to feed - thought they would think I was fibbing about the whole bf thing lol!! that was totally just in my imagination of course.
sounds like it is pretty quiet news wise down in norfolk
maybe the cafe gets overrun at lunchtimes by bottle feeding mummies and all the bf mums don't get a seat or something? just guessing.

mumto3girls · 28/06/2007 16:19

But don't you think it sad aloha that while her friends from the class could all go and feed their babies she was being segregated...because she was bottlefeeding.

Whilst I respect your point of view regarding SN classes etc I don't think that you can really equate a 'drop-in' facility for women feeding babies being held in a community hall to a specific class funded for SN children.

Aloha · 28/06/2007 16:20

Tiredemma, but it sounds to me as if this was set up by the health service as a support group for breastfeeding mothers... coffee incidental.
They serve tea and coffee at local support groups for parents of autistic children. I'd be a bit surprised if people just turned up for the coffee!

FluffyMummy123 · 28/06/2007 16:20

Message withdrawn

morocco · 28/06/2007 16:21

as always, aloha, you are right! agree totally

Aloha · 28/06/2007 16:22

X-posted, well if her friends were just going along for a chat and didn't need any advice, maybe they could all have gone somewhere else? I honestly thought these events were for people having trouble with breastfeeding, which is why there are health service funded. I could be wrong.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 28/06/2007 16:22

But it's a bit different from the speech difficulty clinic etc example because breastfeeding is something you can choose to do or not do, so even if someone is currently formula feeding there might still be benefits to them in learning more about breastfeeding.

Dawnybabe · 28/06/2007 16:22

Of course it would be ok for all mums to go. Like Aloha said, if it had been the other way round, and a bf mum had been asked to leave a cafe, everyone would be up in arms, yet it's ok to heap more guilt onto a bottle feeding mum.
I just think it fuels the 'them and us' attitude and is a bit unnecessary. Surely the staff could have overlooked it? I personally also feel guilty if I get a bottle out in public, yet it could be anything in there for all they know.

OP posts:
FluffyMummy123 · 28/06/2007 16:23

Message withdrawn

smallwhitecat · 28/06/2007 16:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

FluffyMummy123 · 28/06/2007 16:24

Message withdrawn

Aloha · 28/06/2007 16:24

Also, you know, when I had breastfeeding difficulties, I went to a hospital workshop/drop in advice thing, and the place was full of people in a pretty desperate state - lots of hysterical weeping! They were all sitting there with norks akimbo, feeling very, very vulnerable. I think I would have not liked to see someone fully dressed, composedly bottlefeeding! I'd wonder why the hell they were there.

mumto3girls · 28/06/2007 16:24

what if there were a group of women who wanted to go there and some bf and others didn't. Surely theres a chance that if the bf women feel their friends aren't welcome and are going off somewhere else, then perhaps they may decide not to seek advice and just give up and bf instead at starbucks with their mates...

tiredemma · 28/06/2007 16:25

we dont know cod.

FluffyMummy123 · 28/06/2007 16:25

Message withdrawn

FluffyMummy123 · 28/06/2007 16:25

Message withdrawn

Dawnybabe · 28/06/2007 16:26

She might well have been expressing but the staff didn't stop to ask, did they?

OP posts:
mumto3girls · 28/06/2007 16:27

I don't know COD!!!

Aitch · 28/06/2007 16:28

haven't read all the posts but that is Pure Shit.

Gingerbear · 28/06/2007 16:31

Expressed or formula - that is pants.

whomovedmychocolate · 28/06/2007 16:34

Blimey! Did they also do a nappy check and evict all disposable wearing babies???

She could have been HIV+ or on meds and not bfing for that reason. That's highly litigious too!