Breastfeeding mother is told to leave Sports Direct

[CamelDave]

Saw this in the Nottingham Post today, can't believe the store would go to these lengths....

www.nottinghampost.com/Breastfeeding-mother-told-leave-sports-shop/story-21004058-detail/story.html

Disgusting.

Have tweeted too- this is outrageous

Disgusting, that member of staff should've been sacked for that and the store should've apologised to the poor woman. I've had bad experiences of my own with breast feeding in puplic, was told by the staff of a cafe that I should breast feed in the toilet and it put me off breast feeding in public for a while, I would hide away somewhere to do it so I wouldn't have people staring and judging. I was only told of the equalities act this time with my 6th baby and so the other day managed to breast feed my little girl in a KFC

Wish dc were still bfing so I could pop in there and do it on purpose. What an idiot,

why would you want to bf in there?

What a silly thing to say, Mme. Breastfeeding isn't a leisure activity to be done only in relaxing places at convenient times. You do it when required, where you happen to be. Sometimes that's a cafe, lovely. Sometimes it's a dusty and dirty and dingy like the local Sports Direct you describe. The Nottingham one may not be like that at all - mine is rather spacious and clean, actually.

I chose to feed outside of shops (& in my case, discreetly covered) because it's a whole lot more convenient too. I planned where I would shop knowing there were outside benches and the like. This would have also applied if I fed with a bottle. Was it breastfeeding that was the problem or stopping to feed the baby with whatever means? It may have been the same attitude with a bottle. Imagine if the shop just happened to be full of parents and children and they all took a pew to feed a baby? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it is hard balancing shopping with feeding etc I just wouldn't look to feed in a shop, nor expect to be able to (bf or bottle)

It doesn't matter whether you yourself would feed in a shop or not, the point is that should you choose to (or should your baby decide its hungry) you have the legal right to feed your baby there without being turfed out into the rain.

Our nearest Sports Direct is on a retail park with no outside benches and no nearby cafes. If I was in there shopping and DS2 needed feeding, I'd feed him and tough shit if anyone has a problem with it.

When DD was a baby she was FF, we took DS1 to Sports Direct for some cheap trainers for our holiday. She needed feeding so while we were sitting in the bench waiting for them to bring DS his trainers I picked her up and fed her a bottle. There was no issue. Why should breastfeeding be any different?

I'm sorely tempted to take a trip there and exercise my legal right to BF in public.

Having now read the article it does seem petty to not have just let her feed on that occasion and I feel badly for her, being upset. Do not think by my comment I am not completely pro feeding in public, and restaurants especially (as that's where everyone is feeding after all!). Just not so sure about in shops. Incidentally, I never met a problem, probably because I didn't challenge anything. I fed when out and about and in cafes and restaurants.

Oddthomas I hadn't realised you could feed as a legal right (whether anyone thinks we should or not in a shop) and yes, it should be whether they approve of feeding in shops full stop, not the method. Tsk! :-)

I would eat myself in there let alone feed my child. A min to walk out the store into a calmer cleaner environment would be better imo

I think the right to feed where you want is important bit dont understand why in sports direct.

Thanks for the personal attack Drivenfromdistraction. Clearly You feel that the shoe trying on area of a SportDirect store is a great place to be....

Mme, I didn't make a personal attack on you. I said that I thought what you said was silly. That's not a personal attack.

And I'm not sure what you mean by now saying Clearly You feel that the shoe trying on area of a SportDirect store is a great place to be...

Is 'be' a type for 'bf? If so, you've missed my point - which is that it doesn't matter. Breastfeeding is just something that needs to be done, and the surroundings are not particularly important.

There's a difference between saying someone is silly (which could be construed as a personal attack, albeit a rather limp and lukewarm one) and saying that what they've said is silly. Which isn't, as Driven states, a personal attack.

It's immaterial whether it's Sports Direct, Waitrose or the local greengrocers' - as a pp said, babies' hunger is unpredictable and women should be able to bf wherever they are.

MrsBucket - why not in Sports Direct?

Its not the cleanest or calmest of environments. I wouldn't think myself oooohh this is just the spot for a picnic.

I wouldn't expect my baby to feed their either.

Infact it seems quiet odd to me.

She was BFing in Sports direct because 'she was waiting for her father, who was shopping in the store'. So she couldn't just decamp somewhere naicer. What's so hard to understand about that?

If this is SD's policy, it's illegal. If it isn't, then they need to do some staff training.

There's no where really close that she could have gone to, and like she said it was raining.

Not impressed with Sports Direct.
It doesn't matter that she was in there, the baby needed to feed, she fed. Right place, right time, no matter what.

And babies don't think of breastfeeding as a picnic - they're not bothered what the surroundings are like. Why does it matter how spotless or calm the surroundings are (as long they are not actively dangerous obv) Babies get very suddenly hungry and / or agitated - all they want to latch on to their mother asap. And UK law says that's okay, let them do it.

Being allowed to breastfeed isn't about the mother, onlookers etc. It's just about the baby. That's all.

Exactly driven, when a baby is hungry it's hungry, leaving them to scream while you look for a convenient cafe is ridiculous. If where you are is safe then sit down and feed the baby. This is why it's enshrined in law that breastfeeding mothers cannot legally be moved on for breastfeeding public.

I've fed the baby:

• on a bus (several buses actually)
• at the library
• at soft play
• at a bus stop
• in the park
• in Sainsbury's cafe
• on a bench outside Asda
• in McDonald's
• on a bench in the yard at school
• in Morrisons baby aisle (huge queue in the cafe, didn have time to wait in it as had to do school run, baby howling, logic told me I'd be okay to stand in the baby aisle and give him a ten minute top up to tide him over!)
• at the hairdresser
• at the doctors
• in countless coffee shops and cafes

Basically I BF wherever I happen to be when DS gets hungry :o

No ones saying she can't BF where she wants to. Frankly if you're reading that into my posts or MrsBuckets you're deliberating misinterpreting what we have both said.

My comment was that SportsDirect stores are typically rather hemmed in, dark and murky places somehow that seems to be a 'silly' view. Who knew SportsDirect had so many Mumsnet fans??

Deliberately not deliberating (on phone)

The point is that whether or not SD is a pleasant environment is completely irrelevant. Mrs Bucket asked 'why in sports direct' - simply, that's where she was, waiting for someone.